


Project Echo- PART 2

by PretendThisIsWitty



Series: Project Echo [2]
Category: Black Widow (Comics), Captain America (Movies), Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: Action, Adventure, Other
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-03-17
Updated: 2015-05-27
Packaged: 2018-03-18 07:15:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 40
Words: 83,536
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3560888
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PretendThisIsWitty/pseuds/PretendThisIsWitty
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A new enemy surfaces with a team of the Avengers' greatest foes, hand-picked for their destruction. Meanwhile, Inessa's pre-Hydra past begins to surface, casting doubt on where her loyalties truly lie.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

_**Prologue** _

"Now, who do we have here?" Albatross kept his eyes closed and his back against the cold stone of the cell.

"The fuck you prattling on about?" the man in the cell across from his spat at the door.

"Please, good man, let's maintain _some_ decorum, shall we? We have a guest."

"How 'bout you take your _decorum_ and shove it up your-" his voice cut out suddenly. There was a wet _thwack_ and Albatross smiled.

"I do apologize," he kept his arms crossed and his feet propped up on the bed- let his ears tell him more than his sight ever could in this dark, dank prison, "he was here far too long, forgot his manners."

There was a chuckle from the shadows, "And what about you, _friend_? Have you been here too long? Have you forgotten much?"

"Friend? Now there's an interesting title to bestow upon one such as myself," Albatross mused. "You cannot mean that we _were_ friends, I've been here far too long for any but one of those to still walk this earth. Do you, therefore, intend for us to _become_ friends? Ah, that's it I'll bet. You yourself must be quite the professional to break into _this_ particular prison- the only way down here is to kill four armored guards stationed within sight of one another on the stairs, and a roaming and quite random troop is assigned to patrol that hallway every ten minutes. Assuming you killed the guards- a difficult task in its own- as soon as the last patrol came through, you only have around eight minutes and thirteen seconds left in which to make your escape before the guard's bodies are found."

He continued on quickly, but calmly and stood, "You are confident you have time enough to kill a vile-tongued prisoner with what I believe sounded like a long-handled machete- hardly a weapon for a delicate man, but you are also confident enough to speak to me without beginning to break the lock on the door, which to any assassin would be a second impossible feat- after the guards, that is."

"So therefore you are a dangerous man, capable of great feats as an assassin, yet you come looking for _me_ of all people. You referred to me as a _friend_ and asked if I had forgotten too much, so I believe you are testing my memory. True, I have been locked in this cell far longer than I'd care to admit, but my mind keeps going back to your tone when you said _friend_. I believe, then, you are trying to gauge my reaction to being reminded of the _friend_ who had me locked in this horrible prison. Coincidentally, she is perhaps the only person left in this entire world a sneak and assassin of your caliber would have cause to fear enough to risk this place to find little old me."

Albatross crossed to the door at last. He smiled, "You now have five minutes and seventeen seconds. Lead me from this place, point me in her direction, and I will be happy to wipe Natalia Romanova off the face of the Earth."

A moment later Morris held the cell door open and Albatross stepped into the light, "Welcome, then, to my Cabal."

* * *

For those of you who are Marvel Comics fans- Morris' Cabal will feature some canon and some made-up villains, it's an homage to Thanos' but isn't meant to be the same.


	2. Chapter 1: Summer Camp

**Chapter 1: Clint's Farm - Menno, South Dakota**

"Everything ready?"

_Y-E-S._

"No, no. Remember? We learned this one- it's like knocking on a door," he waited patiently.

_Yes._

"Good. Are you ready?"

_Yes._

"On the count of three. One-" he glanced over to make sure she was ready, then turned away, "-two-" he turned back quickly, eyes wider to make sure she was _really_ ready, then turned away, "-two and a half-" he heard a quick exhale- the closest she'd gotten yet to a laugh- and grinned, "-OK, three!"

They both let go of their water balloons. A few moments later there were twin _yelps_ from the back patio.

"CLINT BARTON YOU ARE A DEAD MAN!" Natasha roared from below. Thor, over now the initial shock of the icy water, laughed heartily as it dripped down his flannel shirt. It reminded him of days of mischief with Loki as a boy. Natasha threw her head back to look up at the faces peeking over the balcony, "Nessa, don't let him corrupt you!"

Inessa ducked behind Clint quickly and grabbed the back of his vest, as if she could use him as a shield. He felt goosebumps rising on his arms- the wolf was coming, "It's alright," he pulled away from her and turned to speak face-to-face, "she isn't really angry, you know that, right?"

The girl nodded, his feeling of impending doom vanished, and Clint patted her shoulder, "Fun's over. We'll plan our next mission in the morning. Did you brush your teeth?"

_Yes._

"Take your medicine? Doctor Simmons said you still have to have it once a day or else you'll regress."

Inessa nodded and held up her arm to show him the fresh band-aid. Clint smiled. _Goodnight_.

"Goodnight to you too," he followed her back inside the pale green farmhouse. Inessa waited until he closed the door behind him to curl up under the blankets. Her silver eyes flashed for a moment and the shadows darkened around the single candle on the nightstand. The flame flickered, then went out. Inessa closed her eyes and let her mind slip through the walls and into the Valley.

* * *

The way outside to the Avengers led Clint past the study where Steve was sitting, refreshing his email impatiently, "You know, it updates itself when something pops up in your inbox," Clint pointed out.

Steve sighed and hit the button again, "I know, but maybe this saves a second."

"Still no word on Bucky?"

"It's not Bucky I'm worried about right now," Steve ran a hand through his hair, "It's Dimitri Aristov."

Clint walked into the room and closed the door. He glanced around, then hit the light switch and clicked the table lamp to max, just in case, "You think Inessa's uncle is going to be trouble?"

"I think he's going to be the one _in_ trouble if we don't find him soon. Skye over at SHIELD is scouring security feeds all over the place, we don't even know if he's in the same city."

"Oh, I'll bet he is," Clint sat on the arm of a recliner, "I've gone after people like him plenty of times, they never wander far from home. He's in that city somewhere."

"Well," he turned back to the computer and once again refreshed his email, "I just don't want to deal with the fallout if Bucky finds him before we do."

"You're sure he went after Aristov?"

Steve nodded, "Positive. You saw the security footage. Inessa tells you her name and that he's her uncle, Bucky flips through the Project Echo files, and suddenly he's running off to Illinois on vacation."

"And you're sure Bucky and Dimitri are in the same place?"

"Bucky was due back a week ago, based on what he told JARVIS. He blocked his comms and tracker- he's hardly going on a picnic. The day Bucky finally finds us is the day _after_ he kills Aristov. You didn't see him when he killed Dennisson, he had this look in his eyes, like-" Steve searched for the word and came up blank.

"Was it something like bloodlust?" he nodded, "Listen, between what Dennisson had done to Inessa and what he did to Bucky, is it any surprise? If he finds Airstov I think he'll do what's right and call it in. Dennisson was personal, and he cares about what happens to Inessa. No matter what Dimitri did to her, he won't act before _she_ can at least see that he's been caught."

"Do you think she knows her uncle sold her out?"

Clint nodded, "I do. According to her only 2 people in the world knew what she could do. Now, I can't get her to tell me who the second person was, but her uncle was the first, and based off what we saw he isn't shy about how much he hated her. I've got no doubts she would have hated him too."

Steve was sick of thinking about Aristov and Bucky, and he was sick of e-mails. He shut the computer down and cracked his neck, "I've got one more piece of bad news."

"What?"

"Tony's used up the rest of Pepper's vacation time. He's going to be joining us here tomorrow."

Clint laughed and stood up, "Come on, let's grab a couple six-ers and go tell the team. We can take bets on Tony's reaction when he finds out he gets to room in the loft with Thor."

* * *

As always, Natasha was the first one up in the morning- and one of the few Avengers _not_ hungover. Careful not to wake her bed-mate, she slipped out into the hall and over to Inessa's door. Natasha opened it and peeked in. The room was swirling with black shadow- formless and all-consuming. "Hey," she whispered, "stop playing and come help me make breakfast."

It was like someone pulled the plug on a drain. The shadows began to swirl around the bed and condensed quickly into a small point, then vanished entirely. The room was bright and cheerful and Inessa sat on the bed, her silver eyes glowing. Shy as always, she was slow coming over to Natasha, but the older woman was patient with her- and being one of only two members of the team who knew sign language she was also the only other person Inessa could communicate with.

"What should we make this morning? Blueberry muffins?"

 _Yes_.

"But what do we do first? Before the others wake up?"

Inessa didn't answer, but she walked over to a small dresser and from the bottom drawer retrieved a pair of running shoes- her and Natasha's 'secret'. "Good call, meet me out back in five minutes. OK?"

 _Yes_.

Natasha returned to her room to change and, as promised, Inessa was waiting for her outside. While Clint worked on her ability to socialize with the others, Natasha tried her best to help the girl become more sure of her movements- and for now that meant building muscle. One day she even hoped to teach the kid to spar. She couldn't rely only on her powers to protect her, and Hydra might come for her again. It was no secret she was a physical therapist, of sorts, for Inessa- but the others allowed the girls their pretend secrecy, if only to encourage Inessa to bond and let her guard down just a little bit. Sam and Steve ran along one side of Clint's farm, Natasha and Inessa along another.

"What were you doing in there?" Natasha asked as they began to run. She had to keep turning back to check on Inessa and see if she would reply. Some days were better than others. Inessa looked down as she ran, unwilling to meet Natasha's eyes. "Were you looking for Bucky?"

Inessa stopped abruptly, shaking. _I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry._ She kept repeating the sign over and over while she stared hard at the ground.

"Hey, hey, it's OK-" Natasha came back to her and grabbed her shoulders, forcing Inessa to recognize her presence. "You're allowed to use your powers however you want, as long as no one gets hurt. If you want to look for him, then do it. No one is going to get mad at you. Do you understand?" The girl nodded, still scared. "Let's keep running, come on." They began again.

After the first mile Inessa looked more relaxed. Natasha decided to venture another question, "You can't find him still?"

 _No_. The small gesture was almost unnoticed as she swung her arms.

"Don't tell the others you are looking," she advised, "I think they're all hoping he will come back on his own, but there's nothing wrong with some help." Inessa had been looking for three weeks- ever since Bucky vanished. Only Natasha knew- only Natasha was ever awake early enough to see Inessa stirring the last shadows of the night.

They turned back towards the farmhouse when they reached the edge of the first corn field. Natasha kept prompting her on different topics- during the morning run, when her mind was made to focus on something other than the memories that haunted her, she replied more. Natasha was sure that soon she would speak- unless Tony scared her shitless when he arrived. Inessa took a soft touch- and Tony was more like a sledgehammer. Natasha told her stories about him until they reached the porch.

"Stretch, then we'll pick some blueberries as a cool-down," Natasha glanced at the rising sun- they had a couple hours before anyone else would be up. "Do you know how to make them?"

_No._

"Really?" Natasha feigned surprise. The girl was so malnourished growing up that JARVIS had misread her medical scans and declared Inessa as being from a third-world country. Natasha wondered if the girl had ever even _had_ blueberry muffins in her life.

 _No._ Inessa shook her head this time, shy once again. She seemed upset with herself for  _not_ knowing.

Natasha smiled broadly, "Good- then you'll take the lead. It's the best way to learn."

* * *

It was mid-afternoon before Tony finally appeared. Clint, Banner, and Inessa were returning from a horseback ride around the borders of the farm (Inessa's wonder and excitement at seeing a cow close up was infectious) and Natasha was continuing Sam's hand-to-hand training. They heard the _boom_ of the suit dropping out of super-sonic speeds and waited as he circled the farmhouse.

"Here we go," Steve put down the book he was reading and came over to Natasha and Sam. Thor was perfecting his horseshoe skills and didn't even bother to turn and see the source of the noise. Tony landed in the middle of the makeshift sparring ring and immediately stepped out of his suit.

"Aw, cute, I like the 'Little House on the Prairie' vibe."

"It beats being stuck in Avengers Tower again," Steve pointed out.

Tony nodded, "I'll give you that- it was a bit of a prison the last few months. Though- funny side effect- I actually had trouble sleeping in the dark the first two weeks on the island. Pepper had to sleep in a different room, she couldn't stand the lights being on. Speaking of which, where's the kid- I have something for her."

He looked around as several large, jet-propelled trunks landed next to him. Clint led the group over, but kept Inessa slightly behind him, "Remember Tony, take it easy."

"I always take it easy," he glanced at the trunks and snapped his fingers, "JARVIS, you know what I'm looking for."

"Yes, sir," the voice came from one of the trunks and it opened.

Tony pulled a large folder of paper out of it and held it out, several feet from Inessa, "This is a gift from Pepper- the lady you met before coming here. Do me a favor- take this, go inside, and bring it back to me when you're done. Understand?"

Inessa looked up at Clint, "Go ahead," he smiled to show her it was alright. Her eyes glowed for a moment and the paper vanished.

"What the-" Tony stared at his hand. Inessa gave him and his trunks a wide berth as she circled to the farmhouse. Once she crossed into the shadows on the porch her eyes flashed again and the folder fell onto the ground in front of her. She picked it up, glanced back again, then went into the house. "Damn, so there's more to it than just being a scary shadow-demon."

"She can only make little things disappear in this kind of light," Clint nodded, "and it tires her out like nothing else. You'll see- she'll be asleep until dinner now."

"Well, no one interrupt her. I want to see how she does with those papers."

"What are they?" Natasha asked suspiciously.

"Nothing."

"They didn't look like nothing," Steve crossed his arms, "What's your angle?"

Tony shrugged, "I pulled a couple strings, we'll see how she does."

"With what?"

"No spoilers," Tony pointed to his trunks, "Where do I get to sleep?" he glanced at Steve, "Don't make me bunk with Cap."

Clint sighed, "You're in the barn with Thor. The loft has a fully furnished apartment and you can use the ground floor as a workshop. Just don't mess with my archery stuff in the corner."

"You're lucky I made noise-cancelling earplugs after the last time we roomed," he told Thor, "or else this would have ended badly."

"And you-" he pointed at Steve, "You didn't check your email. Simmons called me to let me know they found some dirt on Inessa's parental units."

Steve swore, "Well?" he pushed, "Anything we can use to find Dimitri?"

"No," Tony started digging through the opened trunk for something, "Just that her paternal grandfather was some US army General, John Ryker-"

"Oh!" Banner was surprised, "Ew. I knew him." he looked like he'd smelled something bad, "That was her _grandfather_? God, I feel old..."

Tony stood up and held out too hands towards Banner as if to say _ta-da_ , "I present to you, the killer."

"Be fair," Banner cautioned, "Hulk killed him. And he had it coming- he kept trying to kill me. Besides- he was the first person who came after me when I became _him_. I hadn't even begun to figure out how to control the transformation.

"Excuses, excuses." Tony went back to what he was doing, "Her paternal _grandmother_ was some Russian spy, no one important. She took dad and that piece of shit uncle back to Russia to raise once her husband died. Anyways, Steve, you knew her maternal great-grandfather. You're all over his file."

"Who was it?" Steve was apprehensive.

Tony pulled out a large black box and set it on the ground, "Arnim Zola."

Steve, Natasha, and Sam all began cursing at once. Tony glanced up, eyeing them, "Be honest, you practiced that beforehand, right?"

"Arnim Zola was her great-grandfather? Our little Inessa?" Sam was incredulous.

Tony nodded and pulled a large oblong machine out of the case, he handed this to Sam, "Put that on. And yes- Zola's son Levin moved to Russia, got married, had a baby named Emilie, and died- well, his wife killed him- twelve years later. Emilie Zola, as you know, married Anton Ryker and produced Nadya Ryker- _our_ Inessa, as Sam put it. Agent Skye thinks it was probably a _very_ powerful marriage at the time, and Hydra would have been all busted up over the loss of two legacies like that. By the way Banner- you're off the hook. John Ryker was Hydra. We've got to assume it's common knowledge to the upper echelon that Inessa is alive. SHIELD thinks Hydra will come after her sooner or later, especially since she's coming back- mentally."

"That is hardly surprising," Thor had no idea who these people were, but if she was the product of two powerful figures it was almost a guarantee the enemy would be arriving to collect her.

"I'm upgrading the border security, the farm is very large. Two suits at the house, one stationed every two miles around the edges of the property and I've got JARVIS assembling and bringing over a couple of small but powerful repluser cannons. Hydra could send an army at us and we'd probably survive. Maybe."

Clint raised his eyebrow, "Thanks for turning my farm into a military instillation."

Tony came over to pat him on the shoulder and smiled, "You're welcome."

"Wait- the hell?" Sam had the device strapped to his back. When he held his arms out, the framework of his wings appeared, but the polymer plates that served the same purpose as feathers would on a bird were made up of bars of red light.

"Ah, that's the upgrade to your unit," Tony came over to show off. "It is now resistant to a simple tazer and, unlike the last model, you have weapons. The science is too difficult for you to follow, but basically you'll be able to launch these at your enemies. It works a lot like porcupine quills, actually."

"Weapons?" Sam was intrigued, "How do I fire?"

"You don't until I unlock the weapons system," Tony pointed out, "And I'm not doing that until we're far away from here and anyone you could accidentally maim or kill. Speaking of- any updates on our favorite half-metal hobo?" Tony continued firing off questions and quips a mile a minute until Inessa came out of the farmhouse and slowly approached him to return the folder. She was pale and her arm shook as she handed the papers off.

"Hey," Banner crouched down so she could see his face, "go grab some apple juice and get some rest before dinner, OK? It's NOVA-night and you promised to watch that documentary on gamma radiation with me."

_O-K._

"She says 'alright'," Clint translated as Inessa returned to the farmhouse.

"Let's see," Tony flipped through the papers, "She's fast," he held the papers out and his suit moved to retrieve them, "JARVIS, score 'em."

"Do we get to know what they are _now_ ," Steve feigned interest. He wasn't a sarcastic person- unless Tony was within earshot. They'd made a truce during the whole Shadow invasion, but that was long gone.

The suit held the pages up to the faceplate and scanned each document quickly. Tony held up a hand and waited for the suit to finish and print out a small piece of paper, which he quickly collected and scanned. "Well, kids, we've got a problem."

"What?" Natasha stepped closer, "Is something wrong with Inessa?"

Tony nodded, "Something very bad. Her talents are being squandered."

Steve rolled his eyes and turned instead to the suit, "JARVIS, hand me the papers please." the suit obliged and he flipped through them, "Wait- an I.Q. test?" He found a second test underneath it, "And some kind of math thing."

"I told you, it was Pepper's idea. And that 'math thing' is the placement test for M.I.T's mathematics department. Inessa there aced everything short of calculus and trig, which I doubt she would have learned in a public junior high anyways." he held up the small piece of paper, "And she's got a 217 I.Q. That's way into genius-level. Once I get my lab set up-"

"You get her two hours a day, every other day. Just like everyone else. But that's only if she'll go with you." Sam cut him off, "We have a system."

Now it was Tony who was rolling his eyes, "Fine, but we start tomorrow," he snapped his fingers and the trunks lifted off the ground, "JARVIS, conduct your orchestra." The suit flew off towards the barn, leading the luggage. Tony looked around at the farmhouse and the distant fields, "This'll be great, it'll be fun. Like... Summer camp."

Clint smiled broadly, "Yeah! Just like summer camp! And you know what our first fun-filled activity is?"

"What's that, Farmer Hawk?" Tony returned the mock enthusiasm.

"Mucking out the stables," Clint grabbed Tony's arm with one hand and scooped up the reigns of Inessa's horse with his other. Tony kept looking back at the others, astounded by Hawkeye's impressively unbreakable grip.

"Um, help? Anyone? Avengers? Seriously-" they rounded a corner and disappeared. Banner, grinning, followed.

Natasha, Thor, Steve, and Sam glanced at one another, "He's right about one thing," Steve mused, "I don't think any of us have ever been to summer camp-" he looked to Sam who shook his head, he didn't have to bother checking with Natasha, "right, but from the movie's I've seen there's always an obnoxious kid, now we have one."

Sam laughed and patted Steve on the back, the turned away from the group and readied for flight, "Hold it-" Natasha called to him, "we're not done yet."

"But mom~" Sam whined, then winked.

"Wings off, now-," Natasha barely suppressed her grin, "and call me 'mom' one more time and I'll teach you some new and very painful moves."

Steve turned back to the porch to resume his reading. Before Thor returned to his game he called over to Natasha, "Black Widow, promise me something! When my father lifts my exile from Asgard, I shall call upon my Warriors Three. I would have you battle our Lady Sif, for I believe you two would be an even match and she has yet to meet her equal in all the nine realms!"

"I would be honored to wipe the floor with your friend," Natasha bowed. When Sam tried to take the opening and topple her, she spun quickly, lowered herself, and knocked his legs out from under him.

* * *

Inessa watched the Avengers from the window of her room. She couldn't stop her hands from shaking- but it had nothing to do with her trick outside. What if they knew? What if they found out the truth about what she was stirring in the shadows?

Would they kill her then?

Imprison her?

Torture her like Dennisson had until she forgot again what she'd done?

What she still needed to do?

Her heart was pounding and she felt sick to her stomach just thinking about it. Inessa drew the curtains to send the room into darkness, then began to call up the doors of the Valley. She felt guilty even as she began, but she had no choice. It didn't matter how much pain it caused her-

Or how many lives it would cost.

 


	3. Chapter 2: Be Careful What You Wish For

**Chapter 2: Clint's Farmhouse - Menno, South Dakota**

Very little counter space was left after Clint began preparing dinner. Unlike the kitchens in Avengers Tower, this one wasn't the size of a living room. He loved the company and all the noise around the farmhouse- but cooking for a God, super-soldier, Hulk, and four others was certainly a feat. He was tempted to just order pizza when his name was drawn for dinner-duty, but they insisted on a nice meal to celebrate Tony's arrival (well, Tony insisted).

Four large chickens dusted in garlic salt spun in four large rotisserie units in the loft kitchen, and Clint was busy preparing side dishes in the farmhouse. The small hall between the kitchen and porch door was in deep shadow as the sun set. There Inessa kept a path through the Valley open for Clint to cross between the loft and the farmhouse- a kind of short cut.

The kid in question sat at the table with Banner, Tony, and Sam playing cards. It gave all of the Avengers some insight into how Inessa thought and strategized. Natasha banned playing for money- but that was to protect the others. Inessa was a wicked card player. Tony was convinced she was using her powers to somehow steal the good cards from the deck, but there was no tell-tale flash of light in her silver eyes. She was just a _very_ cunning player.

"Door safe to go through?" Clint always asked before he stepped into the shadows.

Inessa looked up from her cards. Her eyes glowed silver and black mist began to roll along her skin as she let her mind enter the Valley. Her wolf sat on the other side of the entrance, ready to escort Clint lest the rest of the pack try to escape the Valley and run free again. After New York they had become impossible to control.

_Yes._

"She says 'knock first'," Tony copied Inessa's motion.

"No she didn't." He winked at Inessa and stepped through the portal.

The Valley was unnerving, even though by now he had crossed through it well over a dozen times. Sharp gray stones tumbled and shifted across the surface, buffeted by a harsh wind. If he looked up (and he tried to avoid that at all costs) he would see clouds swirling towards a dead light in the sky- it was like being in the middle of a tornado.

A vast nothingness stretched around him in all directions, broken only by a distant ridge. No water, no plants, no animals save the wolf and a streak of black on the horizon that indicated the pack was watching. Ahead of him the view was blocked only by a long, narrow column of shadow- the other end of the path. Passing through the shadows was not instantaneous, but it still cut the trek down significantly. When Clint stepped into the shadow and came out in the loft kitchen, he breathed a sigh of relief and took a few moments to collect himself.

"It is a strange feeling, is it not?" Thor asked as Clint stepped out into the kitchen.

He nodded, "It feels like... Have you ever read the bible?"

Thor thought hard, then shook his head, "I have heard of it while watching your History Channel, but I have not read it yet."

"Well, there's a passage in it somewhere, I don't know where, that says 'Ye though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I shall fear no evil.' That's kind of how I feel when I go through that place."

"The Valley of the Shadow of Death? That does seem an apt description. It has the feeling of a tomb."

Clint began checking the chickens. Suddenly he stood up straight, "Hey! I just realized- what did we call the thing that was attacking us in Avengers Tower?"

"Inessa, and you shouldn't call the lady a 'thing'." Thor chided.

"No, before we knew it was Inessa... And for the record- I would never call her 'thing'."

"We called it 'Shadow'." Thor reached the same realization Clint had, "The Valley of the Shadow! Ha!"

"I'm calling it that from now on," Clint inspected the last one then went back to the corner he'd emerged from, "Dinner in twenty," he called over to Thor before crossing back through.

He barely had time to register the kitchen around him before trouble started.

"Clint!" Natasha called, "We've got a problem!"

Immediately he reached for one of the crossbows he kept hidden throughout the house, "What's wrong?"

"Inessa!" Sam was holding her by the shoulders, shaking her. Her eyes were still burning bright and even more smoke rolled down her arms than before. She sat stock-still and watched something the rest of them couldn't see. There was a _woosh_ of air behind Clint and he turned- he could see into the hallway again, the door was closed.

Tony was standing by, worrying, "Should I get the suit in here with some lights? What's wrong?"

"No!" Natasha pointed to the switch, "Make it darker!"

"How does that help?" Tony argued as Clint hit the button. The room was plunged into deep shadows.

"Look at her eyes." Natasha waved her hand back and forth in front of them, nothing, "They were like that when she was the Shadow."

"You think she fell out of her body again?" Tony was incredulous, "She didn't bleed shadows back then in case you forgot."

Clint stood back- there were enough people crowding around anyways, "How long has she been like that?"

"Since just after you went to the loft. We thought she was watching you walk or waiting for you. Did you see anything unusual in the Valley?"

He shook his head, "Just the wolf and the pack, what we've all seen."

Without looking, Inessa stood up suddenly. She took slow, careful steps, and the Avengers scrambled to get out of her way. Whatever led her, she followed it down the narrow hallway and into the foyer. Shadows deepened and stretched around her. Inessa stopped and raised her arm. The Shadows bleeding from it were so dense they couldn't see past the elbow. Steve ducked out of the study to see what was wrong and froze halfway between Inessa and Natasha. She leaned forward as if reaching for something, pulled it through-

A heartbeat later Inessa flew across the living room and into a bookcase.

* * *

Bucky avoided shadows religiously- but he couldn't tonight. He'd spent hours considering his options carefully, crossing them off one by one. He had to hope no one was watching. Any plan that required moving the body in the daytime was far riskier than it would be at night. Besides- his contact wanted to double the rate at even a _suggestion_ of doing this a a midday job, and Bucky hadn't been able to find enough of Hydra's old drop-boxes to scrounge up that kind of money.

He waited by the bus-stop as directed with his skin crawling at the slightest breeze. He _couldn't_ be found by the Avengers, not right now. It was too dangerous. He didn't regret what he'd done, but he knew they'd never understand. He heard the crunch of a footstep in the darkness and waited patiently for the old woman to sit down next to him.

"My team will take the _cargo_ as soon as you pay, dearie," she patted his knee. Bucky pulled a thick envelope from his jacket and slipped it into her handbag between them. She lifted it, tested the difference in weight, "Pleasure doing business with you." she checked her watch, "Oh no! Well, fooey, I'm five minutes late for my bus! Isn't that just rotten luck?" she stood up and smiled down on him, "Have a good evening, love."

He couldn't move- as instructed he had to catch the next bus to Military Pier and only then could he go on his way. These people were professionals, he had no doubt there was a sniper trained on him at that moment. Mercifully he didn't have long to wait. The bus pulled in and he hopped on, ignoring the stares of the other passengers. He hadn't slept in quite some time, and he was fairly certain he smelled. The kind of work he was doing- you don't usually worry about personal hygiene. Add to that the leather jacket and thick gloves to hide his metal arm (an unusual sight in the middle of summer)- he was sure he wouldn't be fitting in anywhere.

Military Pier housed some of the city's finest museums- and darkest footpaths. The bus dropped him off along one of those. Bucky had been safe on the relatively bright bus, but now? He had to walk through just about pitch-black turf for at least a mile or two. _Oh well, if they haven't found me yet then maybe-_ as he stepped out from the light of the bus stop he suddenly felt a presence. He could hear something behind him- someone following.

It was a different sensation than when Inessa appeared in New York- one that spoke to him as an assassin. He knew someone was there- someone was watching. Hydra? Most likely- their agents in the city didn't know the Winter Soldier had gone rogue, they provided him with excellent assistance in his quest. But eventually word would travel- he'd just been hoping it traveled a few days slower. Particularly after what he'd done to the helpful agents.

Bucky walked slower and listened harder. Four sets of tracks, soft, but not professional-soft. Probably a low-level team or prowling street gang who had no idea just who they were dealing with. If Hydra's leaders had any brains they would have sent an assassin, not a gang. A soft breeze blew from over the water and Bucky shivered slightly. He didn't have a knife on him, his only weapon was the arm. Oh, and super-strength.

He heard something- another set of footprints closer behind. So they did send an assassin. Perfect. He only walked a few feet further before stopping and listening. He shivered with anticipation of a fight. The assassin closed in- another mistake. Hydra should have sent someone who struck from a distance. Bucky tensed and readied for a good old fashioned fist-fight. A hand closed around his arm and yanked at him.

Bucky spun- ignoring the wave of nausea that suddenly hit as he moved- and twisted his arm so that he held the assassin. He back-handed his assailant with his metal arm and released, sending them flying-

Into a bookcase?

He stepped forward to look at his attacker and saw her look up from the wreckage with a hand over her bleeding cheek. _Oh god._

Inessa was staring at him, shaking, hyperventilating. He realized he was scowling and tried to wipe his face, "Ine-" she vanished in a black cloud with a squeak and in her place was a massive and _exceptionally_ pissed black wolf. It snarled at Bucky and crouched low, ready to strike.

"Nadya!" Steve was the first to recover enough to take charge, "Nadya, down! Go!" he ran forward and put himself between the dog and Bucky, "Go to Inessa! Go!" it continued to snarl as it backed away from him and faded from sight.

As soon as the wolf was gone though, Natasha came forward and shoved Bucky, hard. He hit the wall and just stared at her, his mouth open, "WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU?" she shouted, "DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW FAR BACK YOU JUST SET HER?"

"I- I didn't- I thought Hydra-" he couldn't put a sentence together. How much had Inessa seen? Why was he wondering how much she saw instead of what he'd just done to her? How could he have ever thought she was an assassin? He didn't shiver because he was going to fight or because of the wind- _that_ was what it felt like when she opened the portal. The 'assassin' didn't magically appear between him and his pursuers, she came out of the darkness after him. Why hadn't he realized it?

Steve grabbed his jacket and pulled him towards the front door, "You're coming with me _right now_."

"Steve-" Clint's voice was hard.

"-I've got this! You find Inessa. Tony, get a med-suit ready." he shoved Bucky out into the night and slammed the door behind them.

Bucky's hands shook, "Steve, I didn't know- I swear to god I didn't know-"

"Keep walking!" Steve snapped and shoved Bucky again. They walked away from the farmhouse in silence. It was well out of easy hearing range when Steve stopped.

"I'm sorry, I didn't know it was Inessa! I was being followed by a group and she got between us!" Bucky tried to explain.

"Did you kill Dimitri Aristov?" Steve kept his voice low, why did it make Bucky as nervous as if he'd shouted?

"What? What are you talking about?" He'd known Steve his whole life, they could read one another's faces easily, but his confusion and guilt over what he'd just done covered any ticks or twitches that might have given him away.

"Dimitri Aristov- Inessa's uncle. Did. You. Kill. Him?"

 _Always the smart one,_ "Of course not, I didn't even know she had-"

"DON'T LIE TO ME!" Steve snapped, "I _know_ you went after him!"

"FINE! Went after him? Yes! Killed him? Of course not!" Bucky snapped back, "I couldn't find the son of a bitch!"

"If you're lying to me I swear to god," Steve let the threat hang in the air. If he did the same thing to Aristov as he had to Dennisson- Thor had warned him against just this the night he brought his friend in from Astana. If Bucky was going dark without the Winter Soldier's help, there was no coming back from that. And it terrified him.

Bucky knew how to do this- slip truth into the lies. He knew Steve wouldn't forgive him, not that he'd done anything wrong. It was easier to just lie, "I wanted to find him, yes. I hunted him from Chicago to Russia," _or at least was willing to_ , "I wanted to see how many bones in his body I could break before he finally died," _twenty-seven, impressively enough_ , "and I would have _enjoyed_ killing him," _actually, it was a bit disappointing he hadn't lasted longer_ , "but I didn't find him," _lie number one_ , "and I didn't kill him," _lie number two_.

Steve stared him down for a long time. He couldn't see anything to call Bucky out on, but neither did he believe the story. He'd pulled Bucky out of Astana, helped heal him, found Inessa, tried to keep the both of them safe, _trusted_ that the Winter Soldier could go back to being his _friend_. But what had Bucky done? He'd handed himself over to Dennisson without discussion, then killed the same man when they both could clearly see he was too weak to put up any kind of fight. He'd run off again- this time after some drunk asshole. _Three weeks_.

Steve had no doubt he found him quickly- that was the Winter Soldier's job, after all. He was so sick of all of this- sick of the fighting, sick of losing friends and sick of false hope. Life had thrown nothing but shit at him and he was _done_. "SHIELD is hunting for Aristov," his voice was low again, "until they find him alive, consider yourself on lock-down. You don't leave this farm, you don't leave your _room_ \- and you don't even _look_ at Inessa without her say-so."

He started to walk away, then hesitated, "If they find his body- if you lied to me- then you'd better leave before I find out." Did he mean what he threatened? Even Steve wasn't sure anymore, "Now, go to the barn and get that goddamned jammer out of your head. You're staying there in the loft with Thor. _Away_ from Inessa." he tapped his comm twice to open it, "Tony-"

"Yes Grumpy?"

"Get your stuff, you're rooming with me after all."

"Oh. Joy."

* * *

I'm guessing there will be a few questions about this, it'll be clarified more in the next chapter, but Inessa gave her real name, Nadya, to the wolf. So from now on when you see Nadya, that's who I'm talking about.


	4. Chapter 3: Fortress de Fenestrelle - Northwest Italy

**Chapter 3: Forte de Fennestrelle - Northwest Italy  
**

Engulfed in a thin evening mist, Fennestrelle Fortress stretched up into the Andes Mountains with only the shining lights of distant buildings to trace the structure up more than a mile. It was built into the steppes of the mountain, like the staircase of some mythical giant. To get from level to level, one had to climb a staircase stretching the length of the massive structure. Morris was captivated by the beauty of it- these humans certainly had _some_ redeeming qualities- architecture first and foremost. Perhaps when his master was finished with this land he could claim Fennestrelle as his reward and bring in his slaves to restore the place to its former grandeur.

But for now Morris had work to do. Fennestrelle was a tourist destination for the mortals, they didn't know a former SHIELD base- now controlled by Hydra- still operated in its depths. Unfortunately for the agents who guarded the fortress, Morris' mission required no allegiance to either organization. His master had set to him a task, and while Hydra may benefit from his work he could risk no word of his plans reaching the Avengers (who strangely enough were now playing farmers in the middle of nowhere).

Morris flashed his Hydra credentials to each guard he approached. As soon as he passed them, he fired two shots into the back of their heads. The silencer on his handgun kept things quiet, and his path to the prisoner was swift.

Just as he had done with Albatross, Morris entered the dungeon quickly, and wasted no time in finding his prisoner.

The man was easy enough to track down- a horrific scar marred one side of his face, but otherwise he looked immensely familiar.

"Trickshot, I presume?" This one was in isolation- no witnesses to kill. He could speak frankly.

"Haven't been called that in some time," there was the barest hint of a northeast accent. The man's hands flexed, like he was readying for a fight.

"I'm curious- it was SHIELD who brought you in, correct?"

The side of his nose wrinkled into a half-snarl, "Natasha Romanoff. Though she was _barely_ SHIELD back then."

Morris nodded, "She's caused quite a bit of trouble on their behalf. Now people think she is some sainted hero. If SHIELD imprisoned you, what reason does Hydra have to continue to detain you?"

"You know, I think they don't trust me." he twirled a blade of straw between two fingers.

"Family," Morris smirked, "just because your blood is the same does not mean you are the same. Some people just don't understand that."

"Our blood isn't the same," he spat, "hasn't been for a long time, as far as I'm concerned."

Morris checked his watch- the bodies could be discovered soon and he wanted to get this moving, "I have a proposition for you."

"Let me guess," Trickshot swung his legs off of the stone ledge that served as his bunk and hunched over to face Morris, "I agree to kill Clint, you let me go."

"More or less. You'll be allowed the killing blow, just as you've always wanted, but only when I say so. Things have changed- he has powerful friends now. To topple them, you and the rest of my team will have to work together. No questions, no contact with the outside world until _I_ say so."

Trickshot considered it for a long time, "No one touches Barton but me?"

"I know what he did to you and what you did to ready yourself for revenge. Natasha stole that from you, locked you away in here before you could get within a thousand miles of him. He deserves what's coming, and you deserve to deliver him to Death itself. You have my word that you, and only you, will take his life." Morris let his words hang in the air for a moment, "Now, do we have a deal, Mr. Barton?"

"Please," he leaned forward with a sly grin and shook Morris' hand through the bars, "call me Berny."

* * *

 


	5. Chapter 4: The Third Vision (Nope, STILL Not that Vision)

**Chapter 4: Clint's Farmhouse - Menno, South Dakota**

Reason told Inessa she was safe. It reminded her of her rescue by the Avengers, stirred in her mind what scraps of memory she held of her time as only a shadow. Reason told her the pale green farmhouse in the distance belonged to friends- she was safe there. But unfortunately Reason wasn't the only voice in her head, and its quiet reminders were nowhere near as loud as the scream of fear.

She was safe- or was she? It was a hot morning, even in the shade of the cornfield, the sun was already bright in the sky. Was it a field? Was it the sky? Was she back in that horrible room?

The man she had pulled through the shadow was one she knew she had no reason to fear- it was the kind man she reached for, but the Hollow Man she found. That pain- a pain the likes of which she hadn't felt in so long- and the soulless look in his eyes brought everything crashing down on her again. She'd finally learned to sleep without waking the house with her screams more than a few times a week, even though the memories shouted in her head all day long at least she had _some_ hope. She thought she could handle seeing him- but Inessa knew the dead look in his eyes when he struck her. It wasn't the rescuer, it was the torturer.

Reason showed her the grass waving in the breeze and the clouds in the sky, but fear told her this was some kind of mirage she'd created. A dream brought on by another near-death torture session. The drugs they'd pumped into her always made her see things. Usually they were horrible, but this could be just another torture. Make her think she remembered being safe and sound away from Hydra, then douse her with the reality of her situation. That had to be it. She could feel the metal cuffs still around her arms- or at least her mind told her she could.

At last she saw through the vision, knew the truth: she was in Astana. She was locked in the room, chained to the table. She could see someone approaching- no doubt Dennisson or the Hollow Man was coming to see if any progress had been made. What would they do to her? Break more ribs? The boiling water? Peel her flesh away from her in chunks?

By the time Steve reached her she was rocking in place with her knees held to her chest and tears tracing red paths through the dried blood on her swollen cheek. She shook and shivered and watched something only she could see. In many ways it reminded him of how he'd found Bucky in Red Skull's camp the first time- barely coherent and repeating his military serial numbers over and over again in a dazed mantra. Steve put a hand on each shoulder and held her in place, "It's alright," he said softly, "you're safe."

With Inessa simple human contact usually helped- forced her to focus on something- but she was too convinced of whatever it was she was seeing. He tapped his comm to address Natasha and Clint, waiting anxiously back at the house, "Clint you were right- it was Inessa out here. We're going to stay for a while, keep the others back."

"I'll let them know, thanks."

It wasn't the first time Inessa had an episode like this. Steve handled the last few- they'd started before the Avengers even left New York- and he knew best how to bring her around again. "Let's see," he settled down next to her and sat with his legs out in front of him, "where did I start? Oh yeah, when Sam and I went for that Hydra base on the barge in Alaska..." he told her the story in its entirety- how with the help of SHIELD they traced Project Echo to Astana. How they'd found Bucky there, brought him back and fixed him up- all with the promise that they'd help him find the girl he barely remembered. The Shadow's first appearance not long after that, finding Inessa in the cryo tube in South Korea. He told her about being drawn into the Valley, when he'd seen her the first time fuzed to the wolf's form.

Just as before, reminding Inessa of her story helped draw her back in. Slowly, she calmed down and while she never looked at him, she turned her head slightly to show she was listening. Steve recounted the panic of the other Avengers when they'd finally reunited- only to see shadows pouring from Inessa. They watched the same footage Clint had, and Bucky's suspicions were confirmed (then re-confirmed once Clint woke up)- the Shadow wasn't possessing Inessa like some kind of demon, it _was_ Inessa.

He left out every mention of Dimitri Aristov, and the specifics of what happened to Dennisson. He ended, as before, with the story of how Inessa refused to let anyone call her Nadya. She insisted her name be Inessa, and gave 'Nadya' instead to the wolf that had hardly left her sight that first week. By the time Steve finished, the sun was directly overhead and he could smell food on the grill. "Can I see now?"

She nodded and turned to Steve. With one hand she pulled back the dark hair that obscured most of her face. Her cheek was cut where Bucky had back-handed her, and there was a nasty bruise on her temple. Another bruise ran from the base of her neck back- vanishing under her shirt. "Can you move your arms for me?" she lifted them slowly, wincing. He put a hand on her shoulder blades and pressed slightly, "Anything feel broken?" she shook her head and put her arms down. "Just bruised?" she nodded.

"He didn't mean to hurt you, I promise. He was convinced Hydra was following him. I'm not saying you shouldn't have Nadya knock him around a bit- _more_ than a bit- but he doesn't mean you any harm." Inessa just looked at the ground, "We're making him stay in the barn until _you_ say he can come out, alright? You won't see him at all, I swear it. Do you understand?" Inessa nodded. "The others are really worried about you, can I walk you back to the house? You need to eat something and take your medicine." She nodded again and he helped her slowly to her feet. Moving hurt.

Steve led her out of the field and towards the distant house where the other Avengers waited.

* * *

_Bucky walked through the charred, crumbling remains of Avengers Tower for the first time since Dennisson woke him to melt off his flesh. He was so scared the first two times- no one knew he had those dreams. Somehow, Bucky felt they were meant for him, and him alone._

_The Tower was a complete ruin- he could barely tell where he was. Somehow he knew to go to the balcony where the strange woman waited. Her armor was unusual- black plated combat pants like the Avengers suits, but instead of a protective suit like Natasha wore, this woman wore only a Kevlar-reinforced tank top and relied on four separate metal bracers to cover her arms everywhere but the joints. Twin scythes were holstered in her belt. Her hair was pulled up tightly away from her face, and a strange, four-pronged metal device was fixed to the back of her neck. Whatever it was, it made him nervous._

_"What happened here?" he could only ever whisper in his dream._

_"You're the one who was supposed to stop it," her voice was hard, challenging, "You brought it here." the first time he heard it, he thought she was talking about the Shadow- the creature Inessa turned herself into. She attacked them to try and destroy her body- then to try and make a path to reclaim it. As far as they'd known the monster was on the warpath. "You said it would be safe," again- when he turned himself over to Dennisson he made a silent promise to the unconscious Avengers he was only doing it to keep them safe. "And where the hell were you when everything burned?"_

_But nothing had burned. Bucky thought the vision was to warn him against something- leaving maybe, but it hadn't been. Nothing in the Tower burned- but maybe that was because Inessa had seen him, brought him away from Dennisson's base._

_Her stance and tone reminded him of Natasha, but he knew it wasn't her. Somehow he felt that Nat was long gone. "You asked for my help. At least tell me what did all of this."_

_"As if you didn't know what would happen when you abandoned us. Turn around."_

_This part of the vision always changed. The first time he'd found himself suddenly teleported to what would one day be the torture room in Astana, but at the time it was where Project Helius exploded- killing Inessa's mother and imbuing her unborn child with the ability to manipulate the shadows. He'd seen the abominable creature- not quite wolf and not quite human._

_When Dennisson was torturing him he'd seen blasts of the battle they were about to fight- Steve crushed under a wall of water as Inessa brought Sam through a portal from where he was drowning in the Hudson River- Natasha and the shape-shifter that had taken Clint's form with their weapons trained at one another- Sam crashing to the ground after his wings took a direct hit from the tazer. Hell, even the Hulk throwing Thor into a wall after he'd shot out of the Shadows and Bucky himself, defeated, slumped against a light pole- where Inessa had found him. He remembered the fierce whisper, "Stay in the light". Inessa hadn't been able to speak so clearly when she found him._

_This dream was the exception. He turned from the woman and looked back at the Tower. For the first time, the vision did not change- no flashes of the future, no windows into the past, just the Tower ruins. Someone was hidden just inside the shadows, watching. If they hadn't ducked when he looked he might not have noticed them at all. He took a step forward, but someone else stepped out._

_"Sam?" he didn't look right. His dark suit was swapped out for a white and red one. He had his wings on, but also held a gun which he trained on the woman. He looked beyond angry- he looked murderous._

_"Good to see you too, now get the fuck out of my way," Sam snapped and twitched his gun to the side. Bucky opened his mouth to respond, but he cut him off, "Don't think I won't shoot through you to kill that little bitch. Won't even lose any sleep over it."_

_This wasn't the Sam Wilson Bucky knew. It was someone dark and twisted. Whoever was watching from the shadows moved quickly to the side to cover the woman from a second angle. He could only see the end of the assault rifle as they raised it._

_"On behalf of SHIELD, the Counsel of Yggdrasil, the Realm of Asgard, the United Nations Security Counsel, Interpol, the CIA, MI-6, and about a dozen other agencies I've been given the honor of declaring you an enemy of the peace, traitor, and war criminal. You've been found guilty in the deaths of Anthony Stark, Steven Rogers, Natalia Romanova, Clinton Barton, Robert Banner, and Prince Thor Odinson of Asgard."_

_"Don't I get a trial?" the woman's tone was mocking. Bucky didn't move from between the two- he was nervous and confused. What the hell was going on?_

_"There's only one sentence for the likes of you."_

_From among the ruins spotlights lit suddenly, flooding the area. Bucky stumbled under the force of a frequency he could feel all the way to his bones. The woman grabbed him and threw him off the balcony into the night, then dove after him. Lights slammed on from the undamaged floors of Avengers Tower and the adjacent building, flooding the gap with light. As Bucky fell, he looked up at the face of the woman who had destroyed his friends._

_Inessa was smiling. Her eyes burned silver and black smoke rolled from her arms. She grabbed his human hand, exploded into shadow, and dragged Bucky through into the Valley with her._

* * *

He woke so quickly and in such a panic that he dove across the room, ran through the loft, and straight into one of Tony's suits guarding the stairs. He was panting, covered in an icy sweat, and completely manic. "Mister Barnes, I am afraid I have been asked to keep you up here for the time being, as a consideration to Miss Inessa."

 _Inessa_. His stomach dropped, but he immediately began to question the dream as the initial shock faded. They were never what he thought. Never. He thought the Shadow was coming after them- it only wanted to go home. He thought they would all die on the streets of New York, but he was seeing their victory instead. This had to be a trick. The vision had to be wrong. Something was missing- some piece.

Sam would never, under any circumstances, try to kill Inessa. She would never hurt the others. The woman had looked like her- but it had to be someone else. Another shifter. Someone wearing her face. Did she have a sister? Maybe there was a twin Dimitri had hidden away somewhere else- one Hydra got a hold of and actually convinced to help them.

That had to be it. Evil twin. Shape-shifter. Sam had never called her Inessa. The device on her neck! It was some kind of mind-control device! Bucky's heart was ice cold and dread coiled in him. He could convince himself it wasn't Inessa, easily, but-

_You've been found guilty in the deaths of Anthony Stark, Steven Rogers, Natalia Romanova, Clinton Barton, Robert Banner, and Prince Thor Odinson of Asgard._

The specifics of the dream were already fading, but that part he was pretty sure would be etched in his memory forever. He had to find a way to stop it. He had to find a way to save them- and protect Inessa from whatever the hell it was the future had in store, or what the past had hidden.

He also needed to find whoever was sending him these fucking nightmares.

* * *

 


	6. Chapter 5: An Olive Branch

**Chapter 5: The Loft - Clint's Farmhouse**

"Get up here, or get Inessa out of sight because I _need_ to talk to you all _now_!" Bucky snapped over the comms. He was pacing the loft furiously with his heart pounding in his ears. Secrecy be damned- he didn't care anymore if this dream was just for him or not, he was going to tell the others.

Steve sounded annoyed when he replied, "What is it?"

"I need to talk to you! Let Sam watch Inessa and come up here!"

"Oh, I see how it is," Sam now.

"Your part of this is different than theirs," Bucky snapped, "Look, just come up here. I'm not joking about coming to you. I'll take apart this damned machine bolt by bolt if I have to," he eyed Tony's remote suit that was acting as prison-guard.

There was silence on the line for a while- they were probably arguing, "Give us ten minutes," Steve finally replied, "this had better be good."

* * *

It didn't take long to fill the group in on what he'd dreamed about. He kept the line open for Sam to listen in, but he was very clear that none of this was to be passed on to Inessa. Natasha looked at him like he was crazy- actually most of them did. Thor seemed willing to humor him, Banner figured something was probably psychologically wrong with Bucky.

"So let me get this straight," Clint frowned, "you _saw_ what was going to happen in the battle before it did?"

"Yes! Only I didn't know that was what it was- the only parts I saw in person were the two things that happened to Steve and to myself, and those were two of the last things to happen _period_."

"And this new dream," Tony continued, "Avengers Tower was destroyed?"

Bucky shook his head, "That's not the new part- Avengers Tower is _always_ destroyed. Some kind of bomb or something. Only the Avengers floors."

"And I'm trying to kill Inessa?" Sam was most confused about that.

Thor stroked his chin as he thought, "The Counsel of Yggdrasil is a group comprised of the leaders of eight of the nine realms- only Midgard is unrepresented. A meeting of the counsel almost always ends in an all-out war on one realm. It is how the war with Jotunheim and the Dark Elves was initiated. Based on what you described they would have had to issue a declaration of war on Midgard, with the provision that if Inessa was killed, the declaration would be rescinded."

"What gets the Counsel to issue a declaration like that?" Steve asked.

"The death of Asgard's Prince and Ambassador at the hands of a Midgardian would be sufficient." he seemed nervous, "My father is King of Asgard, but he also holds the title of Allfather. It means he currently sits at the head of the Counsel of Yggdrasil. That combined with the sheer respect he has earned- if he puts his will behind something, the Counsel would vote in his favor."

Tony spoke up, "OK Barnes, let's pretend we believe you- where are you getting this information from?"

Bucky shook his head, "I have _no idea_. I don't know why someone is showing me this stuff or where it's coming from or how they know what they know."

Natasha sighed, "You said the second dream ended with 'stay in the light'? And it was before Inessa spoke to you?"

"Yes- and based off what I remember of Inessa back when she did speak and the version of her I saw in my dream, it was her voice."

"Her powers don't include time travel or visions- right?" Clint was confused.

"Did she look the same as she does now? What kind of timeline are we talking about?" Banner asked from a faded couch in the corner of the small living room.

"She was older," Bucky was positive.

"How much older? Thirty? Forty? She's roughly sixteen now, how old was she in your dream?" Tony was still trying to get a clear picture.

Bucky thought about it, "I'm shit at guessing ages, but maybe early 20s? Older than now, but not by a lot."

Steve considered it, then shook his head, "I don't see Inessa willingly doing anything to hurt us. She's a good kid."

"It might not have been her. That metal device on the back of her neck? Maybe it's some kind of-"

Tony sighed as Bucky spoke and pulled a box out of his jacket pocket. He opened it and held it up for Bucky to see, "-some kind of neural interface?"

Everyone gathered around the device, and Bucky's stomach clenched. A black square with four small silver squares surrounding it on the edges, all attached by metal cables, "Exactly like that."

"What is it?" Sam was _dying_ not being able to see what was going on.

"I was tinkering on vacation and came up with this for Inessa. I was going to run more tests before giving it to her though."

"What does it do?" Clint wasn't about to let Tony stick some metal contraption on Inessa' neck.

"It's a lot of things," he explained, "It attaches with the help of some pretty intricate needles- you'd have a hard time removing it once it's on. Attached it can monitor her vitals, do a live-scan to calculate how much venom is in her system, inject a controlled stream of Simmons' anti-toxin with room to store up to a full week's worth, and, if I can get it to work, produce a frequency of its own to counter the paralytic effects of the _other_ frequency I invented. Stuff to keep her _safe_. There are other features I was thinking about programming into it, but that's what it does for now. Nothing in it can make a person evil."

"And it's not going within a hundred feet of Inessa," Natasha shot him down, "she's not a science experiment Tony!"

Bucky had to step in before Nat and Tony started arguing, "If it's not that then maybe she has a twin- maybe Dimitri just took one of them and not the other- or we haven't even _found_ the other one yet! Hydra wiped Inessa from the system, they could have erased her too. Inessa might not even know!"

"Evil twin?" Steve looked at Bucky like he was crazy- then suddenly he smiled and it felt like the room chilled ten degrees, "I'll tell you what," the challenge was evident in his voice, "we'll let this sit on back-burner until SHIELD tracks down Inessa's uncle. We've got _years_ to figure this out, right? What's the rush? We can wait to ask _him_ if there's a twin. Unless-" he looked around innocently then turned back to Bucky, "-unless you have a reason why SHIELD might not _find_ him. Do you, Bucky?"

There it was. He'd steered himself into a trap. If he admitted to killing Aristov, he was fucked. If he kept playing innocent, his friends could die. Bucky didn't even have time to consider his options- hesitation was practically admitting guilt- and he had nothing to feel guilty about! Take a scumbag off the streets, show him what he sold his niece into- since when was taking out some Hydra goon a bad thing? Bucky's blood burned and gave him the courage to lie to his best friend, "The only way SHIELD won't find him is if Hydra takes him in. We just have to hope they get to him quickly."

"Then it's settled," Steve wasn't done with this yet, "until Dimitri turns back up, we don't give your little nightmare any further thought." his tone made it _very_ clear the discussion was over, and no Avenger was willing to argue.

 _Fine_ , Bucky thought, _I'll just have to save your sorry ass on my own._

* * *

Thor and Banner stayed behind once the others left to try and cheer Bucky up. It only made him uncomfortable. Banner just felt sorry for him (which made him angry) and the way Thor looked at him- he knew already what Bucky did. He'd probably known as long as Steve suspected. There was no animosity though- understanding, pity, a willingness to help- it pissed Bucky off more than Banner's stares. Eventually he just locked himself in his small bedroom and waited for them to go to the farmhouse for the evening.

From the window, Bucky could see the Avengers sitting around a fire, talking and laughing. Steve and Tony looked to be arguing, but it was good-natured. It had to be- arguments between those two could turn volatile fast, and none of the others seemed worried. Bucky grabbed a random DVD from the stack by the television and sat in the dark to watch- hoping it would distract him from his thoughts. Some comedy about two idiots and a time-traveling pay-phone. Normally he'd enjoy it, but at present it only served to agitate him further.

There was a cool breeze in the room and Bucky froze. He didn't move- barely dared to breathe. On the far side of the couch, Inessa sat as if she'd been there the entire time. All thoughts of his dream were banished instantly- whoever that was wearing her face, it wasn't Inessa. It couldn't be. She stared at the floor, likewise frozen. As slowly as he could, Bucky found the series of switches hidden in his metal arm to release it. He pulled it away and leaned forward to set it on the coffee table. The wires that allowed him to move it recoiled back into the metal plate it attached to. It was the only gesture of peace he could think of- to literally disarm himself.

She eyed the arm as if it might move on its own. Bucky slowly stood up and walked away from her to the far side of the living room, then sat down on the floor. This was the first time he'd seen her since New York- but it felt like the first time since Astana all those years ago. He couldn't think of what to say for the longest time, and when he did speak, it was a whisper.

"I'm sorry I hurt you," he said it quietly, in the calmest voice he could muster. Inessa raised her hand to touch the bandage on her cheek, and Bucky shook his head, "Not just that- but if I'd known it was you I would have never- I didn't mean to-," he couldn't put the words together. "I know what I did to you, and what Dennisson did to you. I'm sorry I didn't turn around a kill him the first day. I'm sorry I-" his voice broke and he stopped.

Inessa turned and clicked on the lamp next to her, illuminating half the room. Bucky looked down at his hands in his lap. He thought it was hard seeing her in the Tower before- that dead look in her eyes haunted him still- but this? Seeing the suffering on her face as he spoke, somehow it cut deeper. He wanted nothing more than for an army of Hydra to descend on the farm for him to slaughter. For every bit of harm he'd inflicted on people over the last several decades he would kill one Hydra agent. Then maybe he wouldn't feel so guilty. Then maybe he could face Inessa.

Bucky jumped when two small hands lifted his. He stared at the scars around her wrists from the chains _he'd_ used to bind her. He looked up at Inessa, but she wasn't looking at him. She kept her head turned away so she couldn't see him and pulled him to his feet. Bucky's mouth hung open slightly as Inessa led him into a shadow.

He saw a flash of the Valley- but his eyes were drawn to a thick column of silver fog. It seemed like they'd only just stepped into the Valley before they stepped out again next to the fire pit.

Natasha jumped up when she saw Inessa leading Bucky. The Avengers all watched, silent, as Inessa pointed to an empty seat- the one she had vacated only recently when Clint sent her off to sleep. "What?"

In response to his question, Inessa quickly walked around Bucky and gave him a small shove, then jumped back. Confused, he sat down in the chair, then looked up at her. She immediately turned and ran back into the farmhouse. Tony broke the silence with a surprised laugh, "Well Rogers," he elbowed Steve, "you did say Bucky could join the team when Nessa said so- I think she just did."

There were surprised chuckles from the others and Clint patted Bucky on the back, "If she forgives you, I guess we have to cut you some slack as well."

Steve's expression softened slightly. He leaned over and grabbed a beer from the cooler next to Tony and threw it over the fire to Bucky, "This doesn't mean you're off the hook," he warned, but he at least attempted a smile.

Somehow Inessa's act of kindness only made him feel worse.

* * *

 


	7. Chapter 6: Volgograd (Formerly Stalingrad), Russia

**Chapter 6: Volgograd (Formerly Stalingrad), Russia**

"Over fifty guards on my compound," the old man chuckled weakly, "and I cannot raise any of them now."

Morris smiled innocently and stepped out of the shadows, "If it helps, they were almost a challenge."

"Bullshit," the man spoke with the wheeze of an old smoker. His vitals- monitored by several machines arrayed around his bed- showed no change. He was neither afraid of Morris nor surprised by him. It was exactly what the younger man was hoping for.

"General Ryker, if I may?" the old man nodded and Morris approached. He stopped at the foot of the bed and gestured to the machines surrounding him, "Is this how you wish to die? Or how you wish to live, for that matter?"

"I've lived too long as it is- the lament of many of my age. I lost my wife over twenty years ago, one son ate a bullet and the other- well. I have it on good authority that particular disappointment has been removed from the mortal coil as well. I've been hooked up to these machines for so long I don't remember what fresh air feels like, and I hope only for death. So the answer to your questions is that this is _precisely_ how I wish to die."

"Hardly fitting for one of your reputation."

"I am not a dreamer, stranger. I am a realist. I will not be standing up and dying in a blaze of glory, I will rot away here in this room, as I've done for decades. My legacy and my reputation die with me."

Morris smiled, "That is where I believe we may help one another. A lot has changed in this world since you were sent into exile. Doctor Bruce Banner is not the only one with peculiar abilities."

General Ryker sighed, "Doctor Banner. You know, you aren't he first to come to me about him. Not even the tenth. Selling my research is what bought me this house and my second kidney transplant."

"I'm not here to offer you money. You are aware your son Anton fathered a child twenty-one years ago?"

"Twenty-two, actually. How is Nadya? Still playing in the dark? Dimitri, buffoon though he is, sent me school photographs up until she was in the seventh grade," he pointed as best he could to a school-house frame on the wall with a space for pictures from kindergarten through twelfth grade. "He said he was thinking of sending her back to Hydra for training as an Asset."

Morris laughed softly, "They did what they could to _encourage_ her obedience, but cutting that morally superior streak from her was work for a surgeon, they sent in the Winter Soldier with a butcher as his guide."

"I'm proud to know Hydra thought the Winter Soldier was necessary."

"Necessary, but in the end a failure. Little Nadya is quite the stubborn one. Hydra lost control of him a year ago and he took her to a whole team of wannabe-heroes."

General Ryker shook his head, disappointed, "Anton would have been ashamed. Such wasted potential."

"That is where I would like your help. Hydra is minor league now- an underground infestation being systematically eliminated by SHIELD. My master leads an empire across far more than just _this_ world. He is more than capable of turning your granddaughter into a fitting tribute to your family name. In fact, she would likely surpass even you."

"So, you've come to ask my blessing then? Take her. Let her do something with her life to be proud of."

"That is not the sort of help I need," Morris pulled a metal vial from his pocket and held it up for the old General to see. "This is an experimental compound, but I assure you it works very well indeed. Within four hours of injection it causes rapid cellular regeneration on an unprecedented scale. Subjects not only _appear_ younger, but gain incredible strength and healing abilities. It is beyond merely the super soldier serum you hunted Doctor Banner for- it's the fountain of youth. My proposition, General Ryker, is that I give you this now, and by the end of the day you are outside in the sunlight and completely independent of these machines until someone manages to put a few bullets in your head, all in exchange for your help distracting Doctor Banner while I retrieve your granddaughter."

General Ryker was intrigued, "Strike him alone?"

"Of course not. You would work with a host of allies, all with significant abilities. I am gathering one enemy for each of these _Avengers_ to fight. While they are divided and distracted, I retrieve Nadya."

"It would be misguided to agree blindly. I will require a full briefing of your plan and the team you are assembling. Only then will I give you my answer." In his old age and frail condition, the Genera's poker face had faded away. Morris could see clearly how interested he was in joining.

Morris walked over to his bedside table and retrieved from it a large needle secured in a plastic sleeve. He unwrapped the needle and filled it with the contents of the vial, "Here is a sign of how confident I am in your response," he injected the dark liquid into one of the IVs running into the General's arm. When the needle was empty he set it down and pulled up a chair, "Now, General, here is what I have been planning..."

* * *

 


	8. Chapter 7: The Get-Along Stall

**Chapter 7: Clint's Farmhouse**

"Ness Nessie Nessa!" Tony hollered up the stairs, "You're with me this afternoon! Let's get to work!" Inessa came down the stairs carefully, peeking into every corner as she did so. "Ease up, Natasha and Clint locked him in a horse stall with Steve until they're friends again. You won't see him any time soon. Those Irish are stubborn."

While she didn't stop checking the shadows, Inessa did approach Tony a bit quicker. She avoided his eyes still. He was unpredictable, and she didn't handle that very well at the moment.

"Today you will be helping me work on the controls for Bucky's metal arm. Namely hacking into them. Tell me Loch Nessa, do you know the endless joy that comes from the game 'Stop hitting yourself'?"

* * *

Bucky wasn't entirely sure how Natasha got him to the barn. She said she wanted to train with him- test some new moves out on a fighter of equal ability and speed. It seemed to be a legitimate request. What had happened next? Bucky couldn't remember exactly. They'd fought in the makeshift ring near the farmhouse, then Nat said it might upset Inessa if she saw Bucky fighting her. Again, legitimate and reasonable. The stables made sense, they were the closest building without a view of the barn or the farmhouse- even if it was a bit small. Bucky asked if the horses might be startled- he had no experience with farms. Natasha agreed, but she said they should be fine using the last stall as a battle ring. How did he fall for that?

"Natasha, I'm no expert, but won't this spook the horses?" Steve's voice carried down the barn.

"It'll be fine. Clint said these don't scare easily, he uses them to practice shooting while in motion. If you want to be _certain_ , we can practice in the last stall. It's kept empty, has plenty of space for me to show you that move, and if the horses can't see they won't spook. What do you say?"

Oh yeah, _that's_ how she tricked him. Bucky just sat on the ground, bemused, as Steve fell into the same trap he had. What was her game?

"See? He keeps it locked so no one accidentally puts a horse in here. Those kids are a huge help, but they _are_ just kids. They make mistakes." There was a sound of a key in a lock, a bolt sliding, then the door swung out. Before Steve could register seeing Bucky sitting against the wall, Natasha kicked him in the back and Clint slipped around the corner to close the door once again.

"What the hell?!" Steve grabbed the bars around the small window hard enough to dent them.

"No one leaves until you two talk it out. And don't break my farm." Clint eyed his hands until Steve forced them open and away from the bars.

"We have nothing to talk out-"

"Bullshit. Which is what I start pelting you with if you keep acting like a dick. You've been on Bucky since you saw him, and we both know it's not about some little-league scumbag. So, for the sake of the sanity of all Avengers, you two are hereby placed under _stall_ arrest until we chose to let you out." Clint smiled.

Natasha's face appeared next to his a moment later, "And just to show you we mean it- JARVIS, if you'd please activate the security system?"

The sounds of metal and gears were unmistakeable from all sides. Bucky knew what was happening before Clint and Natasha stepped back and the empty suit took their place- the stall was surrounded by at least seven remote suits. "Have fun you two. We'll check in at dinner time." Clint stuck his hand next to the suit's head to wave.

"Unbelievable," Steve began to pace, fuming.

Bucky shrugged, "Not a bad idea though."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Steve snapped, "You can't honestly say you agree with those two."

"I've known you- not counting the brainwashed and frozen bits- for a little over twenty years. You've _never_ been in this bad of a mood. And we both know it's not Aristov. You used to _trust_ me to tell you the truth. I. Did. Not. Kill. Dimitri. Aristov." Bucky spent two nights repeating it over and over until it sounded true, "Why don't you trust that? And why don't you even listen when I say Hydra's planning something? Those dreams- Sam trying to kill Inessa- we need to broaden our search, find a way to protect her from anything Hydra might be sending after you all. We can't trust the word of an old drunk, if he's still alive and not long dead from alcohol poisoning or something!"

Steve shook his head and sat on the opposite end of the stall, "I'm not discussing this with _you_. Not after what you've done."

"What have I done?" Bucky was exasperated, " _Since_ leaving Hydra, I mean." he was by no means innocent, but something else was bothering Steve, and Bucky needed to know what.

There was no reply from Steve. He just sat there, frozen, not saying a word. If it was just Aristov he wouldn't be acting like a child throwing a temper tantrum. Bucky had seen this before- it was a fear response. Anger and fear. He needed Steve to trust him, even if he wasn't so trustworthy.

Clint and Natasha listened from the hall silently. _This is going to take all night,_ Natasha chose to sign- if they knew they were being watched the two would never speak.

 _If we're lucky._ In truth Clint thought (and bet Stark $50) it would take much, much longer.

* * *

Tony talked Inessa through every step as he concocted a plastic mock-up of Bucky's arm along with all the same technology he had installed in the base plate. His goal was simple enough- and made for an excellent practical joke. He could sell his invention to every Avenger. Or, for eight times the price, he could sell it to Bucky to keep it out of their hands. He checked over the calculations and programming carefully, but even so he missed the small sabotages Inessa added.

It was hard, sometimes, to understand what the others were saying- a side effect of the work she was doing in secret. Today was one of the bad days. She kept fading in and out, but she got the basics of Tony's plan- he wanted to control the metal-armed man. Last time someone controlled him he became a weapon. She couldn't risk that again. After Tony would check the code he dictated to her, she'd swap out chains here and there, delete letters. The base code was so vast, so complicated, he couldn't possibly recheck everything. If he found out, would she be punished?

Inessa had sudden visions of being chained and shackled in the Astana cell again. She grabbed her head and dug her nails into her scalp. This kept happening- and she couldn't push it back. They always overwhelmed her. The memories. So many, so powerful.

Tony turned and saw her rocking in her chair. He just shook his head and looked away. Clint told him about these episodes when they first started. It was _why_ Tony created his device. He believed it was due to her time as the Shadow- she forgot how to control the mind of a human, not just a beast (no matter how intelligent it may be). He eyed a trunk in the corner- he'd hidden the device inside. It could help her. But now wasn't the time. Not while Steve looked like he was contemplating murder.

"I'm sorry we can't make it stop," he told her. "You need more help than we can give, but we can't risk Hydra getting you back- and that's for your own sake. Still... I'm sorry we can't make it stop."

Inessa heard him, but she also felt the pull of the device- loaded down with the vaccine. She needed it desperately, but her supplies were controlled by the others. What she was stashing away, little by little, was still not enough for what she had planned. Going without, however, only made her visions stronger and more frequent. Her hearing was always the first to become muddled. There was no helping it- no matter what she had planned, tonight she'd actually have to take the medicine. Tony would no doubt report this to the others, and she couldn't risk them becoming suspicious.

Not for the first time Inessa wondered- if they figured out what she was doing, could she kill to keep her secret?

More than anything else- even more than the sight of the Winter Soldier- it frightened Inessa just how quickly the answer came to her, how absolutely sure of it she was- _yes_.

* * *

"I'm not angry. I'm scared," Steve said at last. They'd sat in silence for hours- judging by the darkness in the stall (and the snoring from Clint outside) it had to be closer to morning than nightfall.

Bucky was pretending to study his metal arm, "What scares the great Captain America?" he asked sarcastically to relieve the mood.

Steve wasn't in the mood for joking, "I know who I was- Steve Rogers, codename Captain America- though these days it feels more like Captain America, codename Steve Rogers. It's you I don't know, and that's what scares me."

"The hell are you talking about?" Bucky looked up at him.

"Are you Bucky Barnes? Or the Winter Soldier? The way you killed Dennisson in New York- and going after Aristov- that looked a lot like the work of the Winter Soldier. I lost everything, Buck. You, the Commandos, Howard, Peggy- even the millennium I was born in. I got my hopes up when I found out you were alive that maybe _something_ was left of that old life. Back when I was Steve Rogers." he picked up a clod of dirt and tossed it against the wall, "If that even makes sense."

"That was always your problem," Bucky mused, "Steve Rogers, Captain America. They're the same damn kid. Just like how Bucky Barnes and the Winter Soldier have to be the same person. I'm sorry I had to change, but that's how the dice rolled for me. I didn't get to sleep through the last seventy years, I had to fight. I wasn't given a choice. Killing Dennisson like that- crushing the life out of him- that's the Winter Soldier. That's how he kills. I'm the one who chooses who dies now. Bucky Barnes makes the call. You just have to trust my judgement on that. I'm still learning how to coexist with this _thing_ Hydra made me into."

"How am I supposed to trust a gun with a bad trigger?"

"You don't. You trust a _friend_ who's been through some bad times. Being out here- away from people- it's going to help. I know it will. You said you need to know if I'm Bucky Barnes or the Winter Soldier- give me time to reconcile them before you decide one of us needs to be taken out."

More silence. "If I trust you, will you swear to tell me if you think you need to let the Winter Soldier off his leash? Let me _learn_ to trust your judgement?"

Bucky considered it, then nodded, "Fair enough."

"Oh thank god," Natasha's voice came from the other side of the door, "Tell me if you shook on it. My ass fell asleep sitting here and I can't stand up."

Steve raised an eyebrow and looked over at Bucky, "Deal then?"

"Deal."

"I don't hear a handshake."

"It was a verbal handshake," Steve called over to her.

"Good enough, JARVIS, thank you for your services." Steve heard the suits taking off, but the one at the door walked away only a few steps.

"Mister Barton," JARVIS' voice interrupted Clint's snores. Steve pulled himself to his feet and looked out the window. The Suit held out it's hand to Clint and something fluttered down onto his chest. Clint picked it up, confused, then smiled sleepily, "Master Stark has given me full discretion to make final judgement on the wager. I believe the prize goes to you."

* * *

 


	9. Chapter 8: Poker Face

**Chapter 8: Clint's Farmhouse**

Nine days passed as tensions eased around the farmhouse. Inessa continued to work with Tony on various experiments (they never did get the remote for Bucky's arm working), Natasha trained with Sam in the mornings and, eventually, Tony even unlocked the weapons system on his wings. Bucky had trouble sleeping at night- mostly because he was afraid of what he'd dream _about_. Steve continued to keep an eye on him, though from a greater distance. Banner and Thor were content to simply enjoy the easier life on the farm, and their break from Avengers Tower.

The tenth day, however, brought a letter for Natasha from Nick Fury that changed everything.

When she and Inessa stepped out the back door for their morning run, it was sitting under a rock on the porch steps. A large, thick envelope with her symbol- the red hourglass- hastily drawn. Natasha held her hand out to stop Inessa, "Stay back," she warned.

Inside were two security photographs and a simple note: _Trickshot is loose_. Natasha stared at the letter for only a moment- there would be time to panic later, out of sight. "Let's go," she immediately began to run and Inessa followed. When they reached the cornfield, Natasha didn't turn back. She didn't stop until they came out the far side. Inessa's breathing was ragged, but she hadn't fallen back. Natasha paced for a long while, then sat down on the ground and pulled the pictures back out to examine them.

Inessa sat next to her and peaked at the image. Two men, one looking over his shoulder leading the other. His face was barely visible, but she recognized it from somewhere- a flash of a vision from her time as the shadow. She pointed to it and Natasha turned, "You know this guy?"

 _D-E-N-N-I-S-S-O-N_ _friend._

"He was Dennisson's friend?" she nodded "That's probably very bad."

 _Who is he?_ Inessa tapped Berny's face.

Natasha sighed and decided to explain what she could, "Clint's little brother. He thinks Berny is dead. He doesn't know I took him in. It was my first mission for SHIELD. He was diving headfirst into these _experiments_ , trying to give himself abilities like his brother. Berny didn't understand that Clint wasn't trying to kill him- it was an accident. He spent _decades_ hiding out, training. I stopped him before he could do anything to Clint. He's a very dangerous man. And now he's with Dennisson's _creature_."

 _Find him again_? Inessa couldn't quite understand what Natasha was saying, but she could tell this man was bad.

"I have to try. It kills Clint every day to think about what he did to Berny, but if he knew- it would be worse if he knew his brother was alive. Do you understand? Clint can never know. The things Berny has done would devastate him. He can't know. Don't tell anyone about this, OK Inessa? I'll call some friends, I'll find him again."

_Find him again._

"Yes, I'm going to find him again." 

_I find him again_?

"No Nessie, me. I'm going to look for Berny." Natasha was a bit confused, but more than that, she was worried.

_You find him?_

"Yes- are you alright?" Inessa seemed dazed, lost. She looked around her suddenly as if she was seeing the corn for the first time. Natasha put a hand to her head quickly. It was hard to tell, they were both still warmed up from the run, but Inessa seemed _too_ warm.

_Find him again? Find- find... him._

Something was wrong- very wrong. Natasha looked around quickly- the ground was hard here, dry, it would be too obvious if she buried the envelope and she couldn't hide it on her. If there was anyone she could trust to keep their mouth shut- "Bucky!" Natasha connected to his comm alone, "I need you to come to the south cornfield, far end, as quickly as possible- don't let the others follow. Something's wrong with Inessa."

"I'm on my way," he didn't question why Natasha was calling him and not _literally_ anyone else. When his comm clicked on he'd fallen back on his run with Steve and Sam, now he caught up with them, "I'm gonna circle back early, my shoe liner is bunching up."

"Super glue is in the left drawer on the east side of the kitchen," Steve called out as Bucky turned and ran back in the direction of the farmhouse. As soon as Steve and Sam were out of easy eyesight, he bolted. Around the far side of the house he found Natasha and Inessa's fresh tracks and followed.

"What's wrong with her?" Inessa looked up at him as he skid out of the cornfield, but there was no recognition in her eyes- only confusion. She looked lost. "I don't know. It came on suddenly. She's burning up. I need you to get her to the barn as quickly as possible, Tony might be able to get answers." Bucky's eyes darted to the envelope. Natasha held it up, "You didn't see this."

"Didn't see what?" he scooped up Inessa and ran without a backwards glance. This early in the morning the middle of the cornfield could be a dark place. As Bucky ran he kept phasing in and out of the Valley. He didn't let it distract him, he just kept running in a straight line and passed out of it- only to re-enter seconds later. Over the course of a mile he counted six passes. Inessa was losing control. "Hold on," he needed her to get control. If they got to the barn but were trapped in the Valley, he couldn't help her.

"TONY, DOWNSTAIRS NOW!" Bucky hollered as soon as they reached the edge of the field, "GET TO THE BARN, SOMETHING'S WRONG WITH INESSA!"

"Wait, what?" Steve's voice came over comms.

Natasha dove around him suddenly and ran for the porch at full speed. She jumped up onto it, lifted a loose board, and hid the folder. As soon as it was secured she spun around and ran for Bucky- just as Clint and Tony came running out of the house, "We were doing a cool-down lap," she lied,"Inessa started freezing up."

"What are the symptoms?" Tony wasn't as fast a runner as Bucky or Natasha, but he tried to catch up.

"She's disoriented, confused, there's a fever. She didn't even look twice at Bucky, didn't register when he picked her up."

"Not good, hold up!" he called to Bucky as he reached the door to the lab. Bucky turned, barely in the shadow of the building, and vanished.

"No, no, no, no, no," Bucky looked around- there were no exits to run back out of. He looked down at her and saw her fighting to keep her eyes open, "Inessa, look at me! You have to open the door again. Can you do that for me?" she didn't respond. Bucky crouched down and braced her against his knee. With his free hand, he quickly patted her cheek to get her attention, "Inessa! Open the door!" Nothing. He increased the force, tried to shock her into opening it, but she was growing even more unresponsive.

Desperate, Bucky looked around. There was no sign of life- not even Nadya. He tried shaking her, pinching her, anything. Finally, and for reasons he couldn't fathom later, he wrapped his metal hand around her throat and lifted her off the ground. Bucky pulled his arm back as if to strike her, "ECHO!" he shouted in his best Winter Soldier voice- angry, empty, and dead. It was _exactly_ what Inessa was used to seeing and hearing from him, and thankfully it did the trick.

For a second fear flickered in her eyes, and that was all it took. The world around them spun, they fell through a door in the Valley, and were back outside. She had the opportunity to flex her powers and try to escape, that was all he needed her to do. Natasha jumped as Bucky reappeared. He quickly let go and caught her, transferring her back into a carrying position. "It was the only way to get out of there," he said quickly to an incredulous Clint as Tony threw open the doors to the barn.

"It's fine!" Clint ran in and started turning on lights.

"Tony," Bucky had an idea, "Is it loaded?"

"What?" he spun around, confused.

Bucky set Inessa down on the worktable, "Your machine, is it loaded with the anti-venom?"

"Yes-" Tony ran for the container he'd hidden it in.

"I thought we agreed that was bad?" Natasha snapped.

"Well we don't have much of a choice, quickly, before she jumps again!" Tony came back with the metal machine and Bucky tipped Inessa towards him, exposing the back of her neck. Tony lined the machine up, then pushed until the needles vanished into her skin. There was a moment where nothing happened, then the device lurched- more needles connected to Inessa. Tony ran back around to one of the computers and pulled up a readout from it, "The venom levels are critical. Good call Barnes."

Bucky tipped her onto her back and stood by with his hand on hers- if she accidentally slipped into the Valley again, he wasn't going to let her go alone. Clint came up next to him and pulled the band-aid off of Inessa's forearm- there were no marks beneath it.

* * *

Within an hour Inessa was back, and every Avenger was crammed into the room. She didn't meet their eyes, but she didn't shrink away either. Not even from Bucky. "Why weren't you taking your medicine? Why did you lie?" Clint demanded. Banner put a hand on his shoulder and pulled him back a step. Inessa flinched.

 _Needle. Bad._ She couldn't quite put sentences together yet, or remember the signs for a lot of words.

Bucky turned to him to elaborate, "Dennisson had her pumped full of chemicals, she learned to be afraid of needles."

"But you took the medicine for _weeks_. You know it's not bad for you."

 _Scary._ She looked up at Bucky, then away quickly.

"Lady Inessa," Thor rested his elbows on the edge of the table, "has it been ten days since you stopped?" Inessa nodded. Thor sighed, "James' return. It frightened her."

Bucky tried to step back from the table, but as soon as his hand left Inessa's, she grabbed onto three of his fingers and held him in place. He looked up at her and she locked eyes with him, briefly. _Friend._

"That's right Inessa," Natasha caught her gaze now, "He's a _friend_. We all are. You need your medicine. You know we wouldn't trick you."

There was a long silence, then Inessa nodded. "I have a compromise-" Tony chose his words carefully, "we know it works now," he gestured to the device on her neck, "and the needles scare her. Why not just let her have this? It only has to be refilled once a week, she'll get a constant dose, and this won't have to happen again. I won't turn on the bonus features, if that helps."

Everyone looked to Bucky. The metal _thing_ made his skin crawl- but it didn't necessarily mean that was what made Inessa dangerous in his vision- right? It was _years_ off. Something else probably happened. He was talking himself into it, he knew that, but he couldn't be the one who forced Inessa to take more of those injections, not if she was so scared of them. He'd caused enough damage for a lifetime, he wasn't going to do any more, "We keep an extra close eye on her until we know how well it works."

The others agreed, "Constant diagnostics. Direct oversight by JARVIS," Tony activated some controls on the computer.

Inessa forced her face to remain neutral. She'd gambled with that stunt, could have lost everything. Now, though, she had Tony's machine, and a sizable stockpile of the chemical. Enough to at least begin phase one of her plan.

It was lucky she'd always had an excellent poker face.

* * *


	10. Chapter 9: Ships in the Night

**Chapter 9: Clint's Farmhouse - Steve and Tony's Room  
**

A clock somewhere in the house chimed one in the morning. Steve sighed and rolled over in bed once again- maybe this time he'd find a comfortable position to sleep. Tony's deep, even breathing from the other side of the room mocked him. Something was bothering him and it kept him awake- even though he had no idea what it might be. Steve just felt... angry. He'd felt that a hell of a lot lately, and now just being angry was enough to make him angry. Why couldn't he be happy for one damned night?

There was a soft ripping sound and Steve realized he was gripping the edge of his pillow too-tight. He let go, and several feathers fluttered to the floor. Great. Nothing was going his way tonight, apparently. Without consciously deciding to, Steve got up and went downstairs. He found himself headed for the kitchen, and decided to just let his legs take him wherever the hell they wanted. Maybe then he'd be able to get some sleep.

In the kitchen now, Steve turned and headed outside in his pajama pants and a t-shirt. He didn't bother grabbing his shoes by the back door- no pebble or stick was strong enough to cut his feet anyways.

The nearly full moon cast enough light over the farm for Steve to find his way to the border fence, and from there he was guided by the glow of Tony's remote suits, guarding the perimeter. Clint's farm was nice- but Steve was a city boy, born and raised. The quiet reminded him of nights out on a patrol or trekking through the forests of Europe with his Howling Commandos. It both comforted him and fueled his nonsensical temper. How much had he lost since those nights? For him, it was only four years. Four incredibly brief, violent years. Over the course of that time his team had all died (thankfully most of them of old age) and his best friend had spent seventy years as an assassin for their enemy.

He couldn't even trust him anymore.

 _That_ was what was keeping him awake and angry, even if he was slow admitting it. What was Bucky thinking, going after Inessa's uncle like that? Three weeks. There wasn't a single doubt in Steve's mind the Winter Soldier found his target. Aristov's death wouldn't have been a quick one, not if half the things in Bucky's Winter Soldier file was true. Brutality was something he'd taken to a bit _too_ well- just ask Inessa.

The more Steve thought about it, about the lies that were painted across Bucky's face, the more he was convinced he was being taken for a fool. _That fink thinks everything is forgiven, just because he promised not to kill without permission? What's that worth? He also swore he didn't even see Dimitri, let alone kill him. Lying sack of shit.  
_

Steve became angrier and angrier as he walked the borders of the farm- and not just at Bucky. Every Avenger had their flaws, which usually didn't bother him (unless it was Stark), but his black mood made him pick them apart in his mind.

Natasha was closed off even when she should be trusting her allies, Clint (Gracious host that he was) spent more time babying Inessa than actually helping her, _Inessa_ was being too damn sensitive to everything- she controlled shadows for god's sake! Surely she could muster up enough courage to even _look_ at people, especially after _months_ surrounded by the Avengers. Sam, normally one of his best friends among the Avengers- make that best, since Bucky was being a fucking moron- was being too damned serious with all his training and sucking up to Tony, Banner's zen routine was getting old, and Thor was STILL hamming it up, pretending everything was so damned fascinating. _Ooh, what is this gold my eyes doth behold, be it the currency of your realm?_ Steve thought sarcastically as he passed a stock of corn.

There was a sudden, sharp pain in his bare foot- something icy and hot at the same time. Steve cursed and tipped against one of the wooden fence beams for support as the pain exploded. A suit half a mile off came to inspect the source of the disturbance. "May I be of assistance, Mister Rogers?" _JARVIS, fucking smug robot_.

"Give me some light," Steve demanded. He tried putting weight on his foot and hissed again in pain. His toes were throbbing. The suit produced a floodlight and shone it down on his raised foot. A rusty nail stuck up through the top at least three inches. Steve groaned, frustrated, and turned his foot to inspect the bottom. The nail was embedded between the bones of two toes- though from the pain it probably at least chipped one of them. Steve half laughed- half gasped and grabbed the suit for support. Of course that was his fucking luck. "Push it out," he instructed.

"I recommend returning to the barn and Master Stark's laboratory before attempting such a thing. Medical diagnostics must-"

"Just push it the hell out!" Steve snapped. Without another word the suit obliged- using a metal finger to push from the top of the nail until enough of the backing had come through for Steve to grab and pull it the rest of the way out, cringing under the pain all the way. A steady stream of blood followed. His foot was turning purple and swelling already.

Between the wrenching pain, the adrenaline crash that left his hands shaking, and the realization of just how badly he'd injured his foot, Steve's temper abruptly broke. The dark thoughts that had swirled in his brain without control were completely gone. He was almost ashamed of the things he had been thinking. What was wrong with him lately?

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have snapped. Can you get me to the med lab JARVIS?" Steve softened his voice, suddenly tired.

"Of course, Mister Rogers. You have been under a great deal of strain these last several days, think no more of it." JARVIS was just a computer program, right? Sometimes Steve wondered if there was an actual human in there somewhere. _Maybe the reason Tony is such a dick is that he put anything_ good _inside him into JARVIS._ Steve let the suit fold around him to transport him back to the farmhouse.

Inessa watched from inside the shadows of the cornfield. Something was wrong with Steve, but she couldn't pinpoint it. She sensed him leaving the farmhouse and followed- but the shade of him she had seen inside the Valley was... different. Something swirled around him, barely visible in the periphery. At first she wasn't even sure what she was seeing was real. It was as if something whispered in his ear.

Guilt consumed her, but she didn't regret what she had done. The thing around Steve was getting stronger, denser. She didn't want to see where it might lead- and so she'd placed the nail in his path. Pain disrupted whatever connection the shade had, and it dissipated as JARVIS removed the metal. She felt bad for harming her friend, but if that was what it took to shake whatever followed him, it was well worth it. She may be prepared to kill to keep her secret, but until that day came she had to protect her saviors.

Besides- if Steve had continued on much further he would have found the body.

* * *

 


	11. Chapter 10: Rage

**Chapter 10: Clint's Farmhouse  
**

Grocery runs, like most jobs on the farm (those not done by the Menno Public High School 4-H Club) were assigned by drawing lots from a small bag. As a rule every Avenger bar none had to have their name inside to be selected for a random task (it was a poorly kept secret that Thor's nametag had been specially marked so as to avoid him ever being assigned kitchen duty again). Also part of the rules- no one could turn down the job they were assigned. The Avengers all had very strong personalities, and while tasks like mucking out the horse stalls may be "beneath" some of them (namely Tony), if excuses like that were permitted nothing would be done without at least three hours of arguing.

That rule inspired a great deal of tension when Bucky's name was drawn for kitchen duty- an assignment that included grocery shopping in-town. Everyone held their breath, waiting for Steve to start the fight. He'd promised to give Bucky a chance, but letting him off the farm?

Steve watched his friend for a while. If he was going to try trusting him, he had to start somewhere. Besides, he had an idea, "Take Inessa with you."

"Are you sure that's the right move?" Sam was nervous, "We know Hydra's looking for her, dangling her out there like that might draw their attention."

Steve nodded, "She needs to be around other people. Besides, all of us have been to the mart- even Thor. The locals _might_ not have figured out who we are, but either way no one's brought Hydra down on us yet."

"I'll have JARVIS override any security cameras in the area, keep Loch Nessa and Bucky invisible." Tony offered. Steve nodded his thanks.

"I'm not comfortable with this," Clint spoke up, "Bucky and Nessa? She can't even be in the same room as him for ten minutes. She's not ready for something like this. Not by a long shot."

"Stop babying her," Steve regretted his little snap as soon as he said it. "I'm sorry," he rubbed his aching head, "I should have chosen better wording. Inessa _needs_ to be pushed a bit, and this is a very controlled trip."

Banner offered a compromise, "What if one of us went with them as well? That way she's got someone she's comfortable around there too?"

"She'll just hide behind them the whole time and not interact. No. Bucky and Inessa. Issue closed." Steve's motivation was simple enough, he just didn't feel like explaining it to the team- if there were three people, and one was concerned with Inessa the entire time, Bucky could easily slip away. Without the third person, he would have to keep a careful eye on her. Steve wasn't sure what he expected, there were no people in the town with any sort of connection to Hydra (according to JARVIS' analysis of the last census records), but he was certain someone like the Winter Soldier could find trouble anywhere.

"Pain killers are making you stupid," Bucky muttered. Steve wasn't the only one angry on the farm lately.

"Do we need to lock you in your get-along stall again?" Clint offered. The combined glares of Bucky and Steve were enough to make him hold up his hands in surrender (and he wasn't even convinced he was being sarcastic about it).

"Just quit bitching and get going. Keys and credit card are by the door." Steve gingerly walked away to begin his task of mucking out the stalls.

Thor caught up with him in the hall and grabbed his arm, "You will complete my task of cleaning the floors with Banner. Your injury should not be exposed to the excrement of steeds."

"No one switches jobs," Steve reminded him, pulling away.

The Asgardian wouldn't take 'no' for an answer, "Then I will assist you. The chore will be completed much quicker."

Banner called over from the living room, "I'll sweep, you can come back through and mop in an hour or so."

Steve grumbled, but he couldn't argue. He let Thor lead him outside. The Asgardian's true assignment for the day was to try and lift Steve's dark spirits- only he and James Barnes appeared to be at odds, and it was, as Tony said, "Killing the buzzard" (What Tony _actually_ said was 'buzz kill', but Thor could be incredibly dense sometimes).

"Well that backfired," Sam grumbled, "sure he's giving Bucky some lead, but sending Inessa with him? That wasn't part of the plan."

Bucky was confused, "Plan? I thought the chores were assigned randomly?"

"This one isn't," Clint sighed, "we don't trust cooking to just anyone. The idea was you get to leave the farm, show Steve you're not a flight risk, and clear up some of this tension. No offense Bucky, but I really am not comfortable with you being alone in a confined space with Inessa. I know you wouldn't do anything to hurt her, but she doesn't, and her comfort is my only priority right now."

"Give her the option," Sam suggested, "if she wants to try we let her go. If not, Bucky can go alone. Steve's only our leader in times of crisis, not in times of errands. Just because he says 'jump' doesn't mean we say 'how high'."

Natasha raised her eyebrows, "I'm surprised to hear you say that."

"Something's not right with Steve," Sam shrugged, "and it's not just your stint AWOL, Bucky. I'm loyal to the guy, but I'm no sheep."

Tony, who'd been amazingly silent in the corner of the room, spoke up, "I've got JARVIS keeping an eye on him. He'll be under discreet surveillance until that stick up his ass is gone and he's overflowing with patriotism and righteousness once again."

"You know you sound like a complete fucking idiot, right?" Bucky asked incredulously.

"I'm not so sure something isn't wrong with you too."

Bucky rolled his eyes and walked away, "I'll be ready to go in five. If Inessa's coming, have her meet me by the car."

"You'd better have an improved attitude by then or she's not going anywhere," Natasha snapped.

The door slammed behind Bucky as he left. "What the hell is wrong with those two?" Tony shook his head.

"Anyone else get the feeling their tempers are more... _man-made_ than anything?" Clint glanced to Natasha and Sam who both nodded.

"I'll get JARVIS scanning for any frequencies being broadcast in the area. I made a 'paralyze' one, maybe someone else made a 'piss off' one." Tony tried to slip out of the room quickly.

"After you clean the bathrooms," Sam called out in a sing-song voice.

Tony cursed and a moment later they heard the sound of him stomping his way upstairs.

* * *

Bucky pulled a long sleeve plaid shirt on over his t-shirt to hide the metal arm. It was too warm outside for gloves, but he put one on the metal hand all the same. Perhaps if he locked it in position any curious onlookers would simply assume it was a fake hand. Wait- why the hell should he give a rat's ass what some inbred farmer from a podunk corner of nowhere thought of his metal arm? He'd been walking this world for seventy years- counting the twenty he spent in a cryo tube before Zola got his hands on him and began to play with Bucky's mind. He'd seen places these corn-fed idiots couldn't even dream of.

He stomped out of the loft with no end to the list of things currently annoying him. Even the stairs found a way of pissing him off (creaky bastards).

As soon as the barn door slammed open Inessa jumped. She hid partly behind the tree on the far side of the car. It took all of her control to avoid jumping up into the blind Clint had setup high in the branches. His favorite place to sit and watch the farm. Even though it was too bright out, even though she knew it would cost her another night of hunting, Inessa opened a very small door to the Valley. She could see as if she were there, but it required much less concentration. The darkness swirling around Bucky's head, whispering in his ear, was more evident than it had been with Steve. It was getting stronger.

There were no nails this time to throw in front of Bucky, and Inessa couldn't stand to see whatever that creature was- let alone be near it. Nadya skulked in the shadows, ready to aid her mistress if called upon. Inessa reached into her pocket and opened a second door- this one through the Valley and into the kitchen where the steak knives were kept. She pulled back into the Valley, ready. When Bucky put his foot down next, she acted quickly and stabbed the blade into the heel of his foot. Bucky yelped and fell to one knee. Inessa pulled her hand from her pocket and cut all doors to the Valley. The knife she threw under the porch.

"What's wrong?" Sam called over from the barn doors. He started to come over.

Bucky pulled off his shoe and inspected the wound. "I'm fine!" he shouted back, "Rock in my shoe."

"Alright, have fun in town! And pick me up some lemons while you're there! I can't drink this instant lemon aid shit- it's unnatural. And Clint wants iced tea!"

He had his shoe back on before Sam finished speaking and tried his best to hide the limp as he walked over to the car. "Let's get going, it'll be alright," he spoke softly to Inessa behind the tree as he climbed into the driver's seat. Bucky's bad mood was abruptly lifted, though he was by no means fooled.

Slowly, haltingly, Inessa came around the vehicle and opened the door. Helping from afar was one thing- she could do that. But being so close to Bucky made her heart race and her stomach turn. _He isn't taking me back there,_ she assured herself, _they wouldn't let him. I'm more powerful now. Before he got me I could kill him if I had to_. She was shaking slightly. If it was just Bucky, there would be nothing to worry about, but the Hollow Man seemed to be appearing more than the kind one lately, and there was nothing she could do to help that.

Once they reached the border of the farm and turned down the main road into town, Bucky pulled the car over. They were well out of sight of the farmhouse. He hit the automatic locks on the doors. No easy escape. "Inessa," he kept his voice level, even, "did you do that to me?" Sweat beaded on her forehead. She was beginning to feel the effects of her exercise and knew she couldn't open enough of a door into the Valley to send herself through. His voice was that of the Hollow Man, he was going to kill her. "Answer me, please."

She nodded, then flinched and grabbed her seatbelt- but no blow landed. Frightened, she risked a peek at his face. Bucky just looked tired. "Steve's foot?" she nodded again. "Something is wrong with us, right?" Inessa nodded again, risking a glance up to his face. How had he figured it out? "I thought so. Whatever it is- it feels like it stopped with the knife- and don't think I don't know what being stabbed in the foot feels like. You're going to explain to the others whatever it is you know. Steve's never been one to snap at other people like that when he's in a bad mood, and I'm not like that either. Even the Winter Soldier wasn't like that... We have to figure out a way to make it stop that doesn't end with both of us lame, OK?"

Bucky waited for Inessa to acknowledge him before putting the car back in drive. She nodded once and eased her grip on the seatbelt. "You need to start trusting us," Bucky said as he drove, "I know that's hard for you. I know I'm a big part of that. They just want to help you, we all do. You don't have to keep secrets from us."

Inessa looked out the window again and curled up on the car seat. He was wrong. She had a lot of secrets that she _had_ to keep from them. The Winter Soldier had made her forget who she was and what she had begun, but now that she was starting to remember, she knew she couldn't abandon her mission. Not again. Not for anything in the world, or anyone.

* * *

**Sebastian Morris' Base - Location Unknown**

Morris felt his minion's return. His quarters were sparse- a bed, a single table, a stool, and one large, ornate mirror. It was to this he went to receive the report. "Well? What kind of progress have you made?"

" _The child has expelled me twice now. She can sense my presence. The Winter Soldier grows suspicious. We will be discovered soon._ " it spoke slowly in a whisper.

"So ease back!" Morris snapped, these creatures had no sense of tactics, "I do not need them ready by tomorrow, I need it done right! There is no opponent more suited for the Winter Soldier and Captain America than one another. If they take measures to defend themselves against you and your kind, the battle is already lost. You assured me you could have them rip one another to shreds- but on _my_ timeline!"

" _Understood, my lord, our sincere apologies. We_ will _complete our mission as instructed_."

"See that you do!" Morris wondered, not for the first time, if the Ragers were plying their trade on _him_ as well- they made his blood boil more than they did their victims. He grumbled and pulled out his cell phone. It rang only once before Albatross answered. "We are moving up the schedule, regrettably," he spoke before the assassin could. "You may begin _reminding_ Natalia Romanova of your time together. There is far too much her handlers have made her forget."

Albatross chuckled, "Ah, so much time though. Where to begin?"

"I suggest you begin with the day you two met. The day you both stood before Johann Schmidt and Abraham Erskine and volunteered to test their super-soldier serum."

* * *

 


	12. Chapter 11: Consider Everything

**Chapter 11: Clint's Farmhouse**

Inessa sat in the corner while the others discussed what she had done to Steve and Bucky- and what she had seen. "Can you describe what you saw to us?" Steve's temper had eased considerably since he and the others realized it may be due to an outside influence. He couldn't imagine now what drove him to send her into town with Bucky- a trip that evidently went well enough. At least, Inessa road back in the car and didn't find a shadow to slip into instead. Hell, ever since they got back she seemed a bit more at ease.

 _Smoke_ , Natasha translated for her this time, _around your head. Hard to see on you, easier to see on- him._

"Thor?" Banner asked, "Any ideas?"

He shook his head, "I know of many creatures across the realms this could be the work of, but I do not know how the Valley may distort their appearance. It may also be an enchanter's trick or any number of things." he considered it for a moment, "Inessa, if it reappeared would you be able to show it to someone before it dissipated?"

 _Yes_.

He nodded to himself for a moment, "I am prevented from contacting my allies in Asgard for the time being, else I would summon the Lady Sif, but if you would come for me when next you see this phenomenon I should be glad of it."

"I can ask SHIELD to keep an ear to the ground, maybe something like this has happened before," Steve offered.

Tony and Banner began their own discussion on how to track potential energy signatures, Sam and Natasha were working with Bucky on a plan to keep eyes on himself and Steve. Inessa looked around the room hesitantly.

Clint, having a similar talk with Steve about how to better predict when the creatures attacked, winked at her and smiled.

 _I'm not in trouble?_ Inessa kept the signs small and quick so no one would notice- the equivalent of a whisper.

"Nessa asked if she's in trouble," her question was for him alone, but Clint shared it just loud enough to get the others attention.

Steve came over and crouched down in front of her- mindful to keep his weight off of the front of his foot, "I hope we can find a way to stop it without more nails, but considering you figured out something was wrong and helped stop it? I'll never be mad about that. Next time you should tell us though, so we can help you fight it, understand?" Inessa nodded and smiled slightly.

Bucky came over as well and offered her his hand. After a long moment, she shook it, hesitantly, "Thank you."

"Alright kiddo," Natasha came over to her, "walk with me? We need to have a chat about some things."

Inessa stood up and skirted around Bucky and Steve. Natasha linked her arm and the two stepped outside. As they walked away from the farmhouse Natasha cast glances behind them to make sure the others had remained behind. "First order of business- I don't like you patrolling the farm at night Inessa. I'm sure you're very careful, but you're only 16. We're trying to focus on getting you _better_ , not spying and sneaking." there was a long silence while she tried to find the best wording, "Now for the hypocritical part. If you _want_ to learn to fight," Inessa glanced up at her, interested, "I'd be happy to train you. On two conditions- first, you can't fight anyone but an Avenger until you are 18, if you choose to stay with us that long. Two, you have to promise me that you will _never_ fight to kill. Understand?"

 _I can stay?_ It was one of her greatest fears- that they'd turn her over to someone else, make her go to a foster home where she didn't know anyone- or go back to Uncle Dimitri.

"You can't fight with us," Natasha clarified, "but yes, you can stay. Hydra cleaned you out of every database we can find- even school records. We can build you a new identity that gives us custody. You've been unofficially adopted, kid. If you want, you can even be an Avenger one day," she held up a hand, "But that's a long way off, so don't get ahead of yourself."

Inessa smiled, _I want to learn to fight_.

"You'll have to look people in the eye, have them try and hit you, it'll be very scary," Natasha warned.

 _I want to learn_.

"Good. I'll start training you day after tomorrow then. I'll convince the others it's what's best for you. There will be a lot of arguing, I just wanted to make sure _you_ wanted that first. Clint says you've been doing very well with archery, I think it's time you learned other skills too."

They continued on their walk, Inessa beaming all the way.

* * *

That night she slipped into the Valley, eager to resume her work. She hadn't meant to drop that body in the open like that the other night, it was supposed to go with the others. Her abilities were still fluctuating- doors didn't always open where she needed them to. Especially at night, when shadows dominated. She preferred to simply send Nadya on the hunt then, but Steve's wanderings had distracted her, drawn her in. Tonight would be different.

As soon as she entered the Valley she closed the doors behind her. The mock-up of the farm made from the shadows vanished abruptly- the wind died and the clouds ceased swirling. She basked in the stillness for a few moments until Nadya came to her, tail wagging. Only this wolf was loyal to her, and she used that to control the others.

Inessa took a deep breath and opened the doors once again- this time in a new location far away. From ridge to ridge the Valley filled with a shadowy city. Now for the part she had botched when she moved the body the other night. She concentrated wholeheartedly on the task at hand and raised the city- exposing networks of underground tunnels and chambers- the city _beneath_ the city. It was impossible to determine man-made structures from natural underground caverns, but that was simply a part of her task. Today she wasn't looking for someplace new, which made it easier, she needed to return to her prisoner.

There was a shudder through the Valley and Inessa paused. She looked to Nadya beside her and waited. Howling echoed from the furthest edges- from the wolves who patrolled there. Inessa smiled and pulled from her pocket a small parcel of food for the man she'd imprisoned deep underground. She tossed the package into a shadow, listened for the feral roar to verify he still lived, then closed the door and turned her attention to the prey the wolves stalked in the darkness. Nadya ran ahead to her pack- the only one who could hold them back until her mistress arrived.

She'd chosen to soak herself in blood long ago- a dark mission she dedicated her nights to. Here, in this land where she controlled who could enter and who could leave, Inessa was powerful, free of the fear and confusion she was chained by in the _real_ world. Natasha had offered her a home- eventually a place within the ranks of the Avengers themselves. All of them were so welcoming, so trusting. Everyone had already decided Inessa would be a hero one day.

No one considered she may actually be a villain.

* * *

 


	13. Chapter 12: Betrayal

**Chapter 12: Clint's Farmhouse - Horse Stables**

Very fine traces of yellow still tinted his skin from the Wolf's poison. When it first entered the veins, it was silver, as with all the others, but this case was special. Different. He had something else mixed with his blood that the poison was interacting with. Some foreign chemical. Inessa watched him for a long time by the light of a candle, tried to find a pattern to the tattoos of burning veins that ran across his body. She knew she couldn't keep him there, she'd have to put his body with all the others eventually, but she couldn't resist studying the differences between him and those without abilities.

The hunt was always so slow when the prey wasn't tagged. They had to run through shadows across the world for this one, and always with Inessa watching through their eyes. Nothing of his remained with a scent for the wolves to track, not that it would have sped the task up by much. A piece of the Valley was always kept locked away from the others- every hour or so Inessa would change it- unlock another region, another city. It was pure luck that they'd finally hit gold that night.

When they found him he was in the deep south visiting an old bow maker- his supplier before SHIELD caught up with him. Inessa allowed him to carry out his transaction, kill the bower to cover his tracks, and leave. It was two blocks from the market where she opened the portal and drew him in.

Berny had simply stared, flabbergasted. Before he could put two-and-two together, Inessa poured her mind into Nadya's form, raised one long talon, and pierced him directly through the heart from behind. He only realized then what kind of danger he was in. He tried to pull a knife out of his coat pocket to throw, but he was too weak- the poison would hasten his death, quick as it would be already. The knife fell short and she opened a door from the Valley- let it drop back where he had vanished from.

She returned to her body to watch the spectacle that was his death. As soon as he tipped onto his side and began gurgling she came forward with a small needle filled with the toxin's antidote. His heart barely pumped enough of it through his veins to eliminate any trace of the toxin before he died. She inspected the puncture, carefully dabbed away any silver that was still visible, and lightly tore at the flesh around the fatal wound, in case it too had remained infected.

She couldn't leave the corpse in the Valley- the others requested use of it too often to risk such a thing, but she wasn't quite ready to send it on to the ancient cavern under the farm where she kept the others, not just yet. For whatever reason, the empty stall in the stables seemed like a good enough choice for now.

Removing organic material from the Valley was simple, and so when she opened the door beneath Berny's corpse, she was able to move the pooled blood along with it. When she left with him from the stables it would be likewise a simple matter of removing the blood with the body. That was how she'd always done it- no sign the body even existed.

What Inessa didn't count on, unfortunately, was insomnia.

"Inessa? Is that you?" Clint shivered as he walked through the cool stables. He was in his pajamas, but carried his collapsible crossbow, locked and loaded, "Inessa, if you're in there, come out slowly, OK?" whatever was going on at the farm with Steve and Bucky's specter, he was on edge in the silence. He couldn't sleep and was on his way around to the back entrance of the barn- nearer his workshop- when he saw the flicker of candlelight in the empty stall. It had to be one of the Avengers, but when he asked JARVIS which comm was registering from the stables he'd turned up empty.

Inessa didn't have a chance to send the body back to the Valley before Clint turned on the stable lights- and she didn't have the energy to open a doorway that large without shadows. She turned to run out into the hallway and crashed into him. Before his eyes even registered the man on the floor, her heart broke.

What would she do to keep her secret? Could she really kill one of them? Even Clint?

"What are you doin-" he saw the body. Concern flickered over his face first- had someone tried to hurt Inessa? How had they lured her out here? He gently pushed her aside, never taking his eyes off the body. It was a corpse, that was pretty damn obvious, dead at least half an hour. The analytical part of his brain quickly determined cause of death- some kind of puncture or stab, and from all the blood probably to the heart. He appraised the clothing of the assassin, but something wasn't right- his shoes were dusted with a fine layer of some rust-red sand, nothing like what you'd find in South Dakota. He was wearing jeans and a loose linen shirt. It was far too casual, especially for someone trying to attack an area defended by the entire Avengers lineup. Hell, he wouldn't even take on one enemy dressed like that if he had time to plan.

The man's hands were clearly that of an archer- Clint recognized all the same callouses he himself possessed, plus there were indentations from the gloves and braces of a professional. This man had been practicing not long before his death. A wrapped bundle was just outside his reach, and Clint was willing to bet it held at least three bows. Shopping? None of this made-

Then Clint saw his face.

It felt like he and the man froze in place, but the rest of the planet kept speeding away from them. There was a rushing in his ears, a thousand memories jumping up at once. His little brother. His only friend for most of his life. The brother he'd loved. The brother he'd killed. "Berny?" Clint whispered. He fell to his knees and stared. There was a scar on his cheek where the arrow had gone in. Clint touched it softly. This had to be a trick- it couldn't be him. He was long dead. "What- what happened? What is this?" he turned back to Inessa, begging for an answer. Her hands were wet with blood. Clint turned back, stared at the wound- someone had smudged the drying blood, pulling away at the edges of the flesh. He looked at her again, "Did you- did you do this?" his voice was a disbelieving whisper as he fought back his emotions.

He expected her to explain somehow that made it all make sense. His mind told him this man had been killed in cold blood, he still looked surprised. It told him she was trying to cover up something in the wound, but little Inessa, scared of everything but her own shadow, the kid who'd saved all of their asses in New York, brought Bucky back, discovered Steve and Bucky's mystery enemy- she couldn't have done this. It wasn't possible. How was Berny alive? No. How had he _been_ alive?

Clint was too lost in thought and confusion. He never saw the arrow coming.

Inessa couldn't let him tell the others. It was the hardest thing she had ever done, but she _had_ to keep her secret. She couldn't risk them tossing her out now- and there was no way to explain away Berny's corpse. They'd never believe her, never trust her. She barely worked up enough energy to pull a single arrow through from the parcel. Berny's arrow. His hand was stained with blood from when he reached for his own wound. Her hand was stained with a fresher supply. It would look passable. Especially since, when the arrow hit Clint's muscle, her hand slipped down the shaft and left no clear print. She put a second hand on the end of the arrow and shoved it in the rest of the way.

Clint gasped and stared up at her. Confusion, anger, betrayal- it was a face she knew would haunt her the rest of her life. Inessa bent down and pulled the crossbow from his hand. He reached for her, his assassin's instincts kicking in. Clint would kill his killer, or at least he'd get a trace of her on him. Inessa stepped out of reach and waited a moment until she was certain he couldn't pull himself to her. Carefully, she tipped Berny into a sitting position, took aim, and fired a bolt precisely through the wound. There was enough wet blood left to coat the arrow as it shot through and embedded itself in the wall. Inessa laid him back down and reached behind her for Clint's still-grasping hand. She slipped the crossbow into his grip, which tightened reflexively around the trigger. Berny's bloody hand she dragged over towards Clint's chest.

Finally, the last gurgle came. Inessa stared at Berny the entire time- as much as he looked like Clint, it still was easier than facing her friend... Her friend's body.

When Inessa turned at last, Clint's eyes were glassy. He was gone.

 _This isn't what you deserved,_ Inessa signed to him, ashamed she couldn't even speak to his body, _I know, and I promise I will never forget you. You saved my life. You gave me back this body, you taught me how to speak again- you are the kindest of all of them. The bravest. I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry..._

Inessa did what she could to stage the scene further- she tore open the parcel and arranged the weapons as if they had been laid out- mirroring what she'd seen Clint himself do during practice. She carefully placed the arrows evenly next to the bows, then moved one down so that there was not only an empty space, but a mark in the dust of the stall. When she picked the arrow up to move it, she dragged it, as if it had been lifted hastily. Inessa inspected Berny and cleaned off the sand from his shoes, replacing it with dirt from around the hay outside. Finally, she stepped out of the stall, turned out the light, and walked through the Valley back to her room where she cleaned up and removed any trace of Clint or Berny's blood from herself.

When Natasha woke without Clint beside her, she went out to the workshop to tease him about spending an entire night playing with his arrows. When she found no sign of him, she went to the stables where he sometimes went to think.

Her scream woke the others.

* * *

As far as the world knew, Hawkeye fell saving his comrades from an attack by the terrorist group known as Hydra. Only those in the inner circle knew the truth. Clint had gone to the barn to work on new arrows, been sidetracked by a light. His comms were off, so no one knew precisely what happened next, but Bucky, Steve, and JARVIS had been able to analyze the scene. Berny was readying his gear when Clint walked in. He shot first, probably didn't even have time to process that it was his brother. He shot him through the chest at close range, and with the last of his strength Berny pierced Clint's heart with an arrow.

Natasha was too quiet after she found the body, and no one would let her be alone. Inessa would sit in the now-empty stall for hours at a time, just staring at the stains on the floor, her eyes red. Bucky ignored the memory of Sam sentencing her to death for the murder of Clint Barton. That part of the vision was wrong already- his brother was the killer. He watched her from a distance so she might have a chance to mourn her friend in private.

The funeral was small, simple, precisely what Clint would have wanted. Berny was buried on the farm without ceremony or gravestone, but for his brother there was a service attended by twenty of the best spies and SHIELD agents in the world- with Nick Fury himself reading the eulogy. SHIELD's new Director even came- though he wore a hood to obscure his face.

Natsha sat at the front of the group, barely hearing any of it. Her best friend was dead. The only person she'd ever wholly trusted. The only one she'd loved. She remembered how he'd found her, told her she could be more. He offered her a new life, one where she didn't have to hate what she was- one without the fear and the nightmares. Without the pain...

He'd saved her life- but she wasn't there when he needed her help. She was asleep, comfortable, dreaming some bullshit dream while he died cold and afraid. She needed someone to maim or kill- some way to take revenge, but she had nothing. Clint killed his assassin, deprived her of the right to seek some kind of relief from the pain that threatened to rip her apart from the inside.

Avenger. There was no way for her to do that for him. There was no way for her to do anything.

No one knew how to process the loss of such a close friend. Clint was buried next to the tree in the front of the house, his favorite perch. Being so close to the grave gave the farmhouse the feeling of a tomb. There was no more joking. No more laughter. No one could bare to stay, but none could even suggest returning to the Tower- it felt too much like leaving him behind. Admitting he was gone.

Two weeks after the funeral something appeared outside the main lobby of Avengers Tower without ceremony or pomp- a large black marble statue of Clinton "Hawkeye" Barton to commemorate the passing of a hero.

* * *

 

 

 

 

 

Oh, btw-

**April Fools!**

The _real_ Chapter 12 will be posted tomorrow! *dodges barrage of rotten fruit*


	14. Chapter 12 (For Real This Time): Agent Ivanou

**Chapter 12 (For real this time): Hydra Remote Research Facility- Location Unknown**

"Verify Location, Agent Ogden."

"Sector 7G, all quiet," she yawned loudly over comms to illustrate just what she thought of these patrols.

Her C.O. was impatient, "You think I like running this B.S. every night? Grab a coffee from Mess and drink fast- you're due in 7H in twenty."

"Sir yes sir," she turned to the security camera and saluted sarcastically. Between SHIELD raids and break-ins world over by agents of just about every intelligence agency, Hydra was stepping up security big time. That meant everyone pulled 12-hour duty. Even when they came out of the shadows, Hydra wasn't this on-edge. Agent Dennisson had really fucked them over in New York. Ogden was there- though she thankfully never saw combat. Whatever the Avengers unleashed, it was enough to scare the pants off the upper echelon. They were on full lockdown lately- even she didn't know what precisely had gone wrong two months ago.

Agent Ogden walked the dark halls, filling in a mental map of the base as she explored. The only good thing about all this- she hated only having a partial knowledge of the layout and now the patrols were providing her with valuable intelligence. If she could visualize where she was going, she didn't have to rely so much on faded (and often misleading) signs painted on corners.

Project Echo. That was all she knew. Whatever the hell went wrong in New York, that's where the answers were to be found. Some failed experiment to make a second Asset, just like the Winter Soldier (who, incidentally, is what turned Echo into a threat _against_ Hydra in New York). Ogden would _kill_ to get her hands on that file.

Three lefts and a flight of stairs later, she was in Mess. Half the base was there working their way through the coffee supplies. Commander Burke kept threatening to ration it- not that supplies ever got _that_ low. He just liked to bitch. "Your biggest cup of your strongest stuff," Agent Ogden flashed her security card to silence the grumbling of scientists waiting in line, "I know you've been waiting, but I've got to keep your asses safe, so quit bitching."

"Always the charmer," Ogden smiled and accepted her cup from the cook.

"Agent Calvin, I thought you were the day shift?" it was nearly two in the morning, his lot wouldn't be making their appearance until around five.

The young man returned her smile, "And miss seeing my favorite Agent? I was thinking we could patrol together. It's tough, very lonely work."

"And I've always preferred it for _just_ that reason," Ogden walked over to a condiment station to hunt down some cream. Calvin followed.

"You've been off since New York," he pouted, "it can't have been that bad. You didn't even see action, right?"

She headed out of Mess back towards section 7. Calvin followed, "I was with the clean-up crew, and we didn't exactly have anything left to clean up once the Avengers came in."

"The Avengers we could have handled. Have you seen the footage?"

"No," Ogden stopped, interested, "you have?"

"Sure, I was acting as Burke's errand-monkey a couple days ago and got a view of it. They've been playing it non stop in the briefing room. There are three new Avengers- all big threats."

" _Three_? Seriously?" There was sudden feedback in her comm and she jumped. After a second, it cleared.

Calvin winced, "Sounds like Supervisory Agent Hayes is getting started on the sauce a bit early- or is it late for you guys?"

"He sounded sober enough when we cleared 7G," she grumbled.

"Where were we?"

"Three Avengers."

"Oh, yeah, well, how much do you know about the fall of the Triskellion?"

"I was at the Academy then," she shrugged, "I know about the helicarriers, Captain America and Black Widow working with some new face. Oh, and we lost the Asset then too."

Calvin nodded, "So they are two of the new Avengers- the Winter Soldier and _Falcon,_ as they're calling the second guy. We'd have been OK in New York if that was it- Dennisson probably would still be dead, but we had armies all over. The third was this shadow-chick we took in via that "Project: Echo" everyone's been whispering about. Some failed experiment run loose. The kid _literally_ made an army of shadow-monsters to cut through our men in the streets. Really freaky sci-fi stuff. They think the Avengers got the kid out of the Asylum after it exploded. How weird is that?"

A chill crept down Ogden's spine and raise goosebumps all over her body, "Shadow-monsters?"

"I guess that was the ability they were trying to harness. She could, like, summon shadows and apparently teleport with them- analysis of the footage has the top-brass crediting her with gathering the lot of the Avengers in one place before the massacre began." Calvin noticed the color draining from Agent Ogden's face. "Hey, you alright?"

She ignored him and pressed the 'talk' button on her radio, "Agent Hayes? Do you read me?" there was nothing on the line. She switched to a general channel, "Anyone read?"

Again. Nothing. Calvin cursed, "How many times do we have to send engineering to fix that shitty transmitter before they finally just get a new one?" She turned back towards Mess and walked quickly. The air was almost growing colder- or was that her imagination? "Yo! Ogden! Where are you go-" his voice cut out suddenly with a gurgle. Ogden didn't break stride, but she glanced behind her.

Half of him was under the hall light. The other half was ten feet away under another light. Agent Ogden picked up her pace- running now. She activated her embedded comm- the one Hydra knew nothing about, "Agent May, do you read?"

A moment later there was a reply, "Agent Ivanou, we weren't expecting you to check in for another three hours."

"Was SHIELD tracking what happened in New York?"

May's tone was hard, professional, "That is not part of your mission parameters. You are to observe and report only. You don't concern yourself with our end of New York, just Hydra's."

"Agent May, just tell me one thing because it's important, I _have_ to know- 'Project: Echo', was it a person? A girl?"

"Yes, why? Do you have intel on her?"

"What was her name? Who was she?" Agent Ivanou rounded the corner into Mess- and walked in on a massacre.

What was a moment ago a room full of soldiers, scientists, and personnel was now a room of corpses. Several lights had been damaged, throwing shadows across the room. In the darker shadows, creatures moved. Bodies would occasionally vanish, leaving no trace they were ever there. It wouldn't take too long to empty the entire room. That was what she'd been sent on patrol against- attacks that left no evidence anyone had ever been to Hydra's bases. It was worse than the attacks by Captain America or the Winter Soldier. An enemy they couldn't track.

"You aren't cleared to know that, Agent."

"Please, I'm not asking as a SHIELD agent, I need to know who she was! Was it Nadya Ryker?!"

Agent Ivanou felt a shiver and turned abruptly. Behind her was a girl- older than she remembered, but younger than she should have been. Evidence of torture- now healed- showed clearly on the rippled skin of her arms- burns, cuts, the shining skin that grew back when the original was peeled away.

The girl hesitantly looked up, met her eyes. "Nadi?" Ivanou whispered with tears in her eyes.

Inessa couldn't tell at first who the Agent was, she'd changed so much.

Without realizing what she was doing, she spoke, "Mallory?"

* * *

 


	15. Chapter 13: Tough Decisions

**Chapter 13: Clint's Farmhouse**

"Enough sleep, time for our run," Natasha knocked on Inessa's door and waited for the sound of the child getting up. Nothing. "Inessa? Sleeping in?" she opened the door to an empty room.

Natasha checked the bottom drawer of her dresser- the shoes were there, so she wasn't waiting downstairs already. Had she gone for a walk? Lost track of the time? "Bucky," she waited for her comm to connect to his.

"What do you need?"

"Can you check Tony's gear in the barn? Nessa isn't in her room."

"Have you searched the house?" Bucky was already headed for the stairs.

Natasha left the room and went to the main floor of the farmhouse, "I'm looking now, but she's _always_ in her room this early."

Bucky wove his way around the worktable and over to Tony's main computer. On it was a constant feed of Inessa's implant. The readings were all blank. "JARVIS, what's the range on this?"

"The prototype transmitter works over a range of one hundred miles sir."

"Did you get that, Nat?"

"Yeah, so she's in the Valley," Natasha sounded weary, "maybe."

Bucky frowned, "You don't think she'd run away."

"No, of course not," Natasha couldn't say what she was worried about- Inessa showed no signs that she remembered anything the morning of her _episode._ What if she did though? What if she'd been looking for Berny to help Natasha and gotten herself captured? What if she was lost somewhere, trapped?

Natasha was back upstairs in a second, pounding on Tony's door. Steve opened it, dressed and ready to go for his run. Sam's door across the hall opened at the commotion. Natasha could hear the other Avengers stirring, "I need to talk to Tony."

"Tony needs to sleep," Tony snapped. Natasha pushed past Steve and walked around the dressers- which for some unknown reason had been moved to the center of the room between Tony and Steve's beds. "No crossing the line!" Tony snapped, "You stay on his side of the room!"

"I need to know if you can extend the range of Nessa's implant. She isn't here and I'm worried."

Stark rolled away from her and faced the wall, "She's just playing with her shadow, give her a break. I can't track anything in the Valley."

"I just want to make sure that's where she is. Going off with Bucky might have given her a taste for adventure and it's not safe for her out there." Natasha snapped. She felt a hand on her shoulder- Clint had come out of their room.

"She's fine, Nat," Clint was as confused as the rest of them, "Nessa will turn up any minute. You'll see. Just be patient. Yesterday was a big day for her."

A phone rang downstairs. "I'll grab that," Steve ducked out. It wasn't like Natasha to get overly excited about anything, what was her issue with Inessa taking a morning off from running? He picked up the phone on the fifth ring, "Holless Ranch, Grant speaking."

"Steve, Agent Simmons speaking," she sounded cheerful as always, but there was apprehension there too.

"Agent Simmons, good morning. What can I help you with?"

"I was wondering- are you by any chance missing Inessa?"

Steve sighed and put his hand over the mouthpiece, "Natasha! Come down here!" he uncovered it again, "Did you find her?"

"One of our Agents picked her up around an hour ago in Gambell on Saint Lawrence Island."

"Where is that?" Steve waved Natasha over and covered the mouthpiece once again, "SHIELD has her," he whispered.

"Between Russia and Alaska. It's nearly three in the morning there now. Agent May has gone to retrieve them. There _was_ a Hydra base under Gambell, not the largest we've seen, but nothing to laugh at. Based on what our Agent saw... I'm afraid Inessa used her wolves to wipe the base out."

"What?" Steve was incredulous, "That can't be right. Your Agent has to be wrong."

Simmons took a deep breath, "I trust her word. The only survivors reported were a handful of people from their research department- all of them test subjects or prisoners.

"Oh my god," Steve rubbed the bridge of his nose where a headache was already beginning. "Can you redirect Agent May and Nessa to us?"

"The order was already given," Simmons assured him, "I just wanted to give you forewarning."

"Well, thank you, we owe you one."

"Take care."

"Yeah, you too." he hung up.

Natasha waited impatiently, "Well? Why does SHIELD have Inessa? And why is May bringing her back- why doesn't she just _come_ home?"

"I didn't ask," Steve glanced up as the others came downstairs. He tapped his comm to open a channel to Bucky, "SHIELD has Nessa," he explained to all of them at once. "Based on what Simmons told me, it sounds like Inessa went on a field trip to Alaska. She- Nat, you're not going to like this- she let the dogs loose and took out a Hydra base- save SHIELD's agent there and some human experiments."

"No," Clint was shocked, "no way."

"Why would she do that?" Sam asked, incredulous, "I mean, I get why, but _why_?"

"We'll ask her as soon as she gets here," Steve was still processing the shock, "How many bases has she done this to? Since when is she a killer?"

"It has to be Tony's machine," Natasha glanced at him, "it's affecting her in some weird way."

Banner held up his hands, "Now let's not jump to conclusions, alright? Is it so hard to believe, after what she's been through, that she'd want to stop Hydra? We need to be rational about this-"

"Oh, yeah, that's fair," Bucky came in through the kitchen, slamming the door behind him. " _I'm_ Hydra's monkey and prisoner for 70 years and I can't even get away with _threatening_ to kill a drunk piece of shit, but Inessa might have just killed dozens and she gets 'we need to be rational'?"

"Well, you didn't have to live with Zola," Natasha snapped.

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?!"

"Come on, you know what she meant. You got to come out of it and live with _friends_. She comes out of it and we're asking her to sleep a couple hundred yards from the guy who traumatized her in the first place!"

Bucky was incredulous, "That isn't an excuse for _murder_."

"It's hardly murder if it's Hydra," Tony pointed out, "When you're dealing with them, it's justice."

"Cause you're so qualified to be any kind of judge or jury," Sam snapped.

The lights flickered and suddenly the room filled with static. Steve felt the hairs on his arms standing up, unbidden. The Avengers continued to argue until there was a loud clap of electricity and everyone received a large (and exceedingly painful) shock.

"What. The. Fuck?" Banner was taking very deep breaths, but his skin had a decidedly green tint- he would Hulk-out soon if he couldn't get it under control, then he'd see if these idiots wanted to insult him- no. He tried to let go of the thought. If he listened to Hulk's voice, he'd change for sure.

Thor stood in the doorway with his hammer still spinning. He was prepared to deliver a second shock, if need be. Bucky's metal arm still crackled with static, but it was dissipating in small snaps of lightning. "Was your anger in earnest, friends, or caused by the creature Inessa beheld?" he honestly couldn't tell. He'd been woken by Steve's report over the communications device. By the time he got to the farmhouse they were already fighting. Without knowing the origins of the argument, he couldn't know if it was natural or not.

"Maybe both," Banner felt the Hulk's grasp easing. He won this time.

"Bucky, I'm sorry," Natasha half meant it, "I shouldn't have said that."

He nodded, still angry.

"Let's just get the report from Agent May and whoever found Inessa. Maybe there's a reasonable explanation. If not, we'll have to figure out a suitable response. Until then maybe we should steer clear of one another? In case it _was_ whatever creature Inessa saw before causing that- or feeding it."

No one was satisfied, but all walked away to wait for May and her cargo. Tony headed straight for his lab and began to work.

* * *

"Everyone to the living room, we've got incoming," Tony announced as soon as JARVIS reported SHIELD's helicopter within weapons range. He barely made it to the farmhouse himself before May was flying away again and a young Agent was knocking on the door. Natasha opened it to see her and Inessa standing side-by-side. Inessa looked stressed, scared shitless, and guilty.

"Nadi, give me a few minutes with them, alright? No running off with Peanut Butter, got it?" Inessa nodded, resigned. She shared a quick hug with the Agent and walked past the Avengers nearest the stairs. "May I come in?"

"Of course, please do," Clint came forward and Natasha stepped aside, stunned. She spoke to Inessa with such informality, and what was more unbelievable, Inessa responded quickly, and readily.

"I'm Junior Agent Mallory Ivanou, by the way," she waved nervously to the other Avengers. Everyone shook hands and introduced themselves, getting the pleasantries out of the way as quickly as possible.

"Do you know Inessa? She just- she seems oddly _normal_ around you, if you'll pardon the word choice," Sam asked what most of them were wondering.

Agent Ivanou nodded, "I know _Nadya_. We grew up together in Chicago- best friends pretty much since birth."

"Why haven't you come forward sooner?" Tony demanded, "SHIELD knows we've been looking for any of _Inessa's_ associates. And why would she kidnap the JIF?" Steve looked at him, confused, "'No running off with peanut butter'," Tony quoted back.

"It's what I call the shadow-wolf, Peanut Butter. She never bothered to give it a proper name and it sticks to her like peanut butter. And for your first question- I've been working undercover for SHIELD pretty much since the Hydra uprising, I don't get news alerts unless Hydra gets them too. I didn't even know why I was in New York until the day of the attack. I'd have blown my cover pretty damn fast if they made me fight."

"Tony, everyone, let's settle a bit," Steve hushed the room, "Agent Ivanou, we are immensely interested in anything you know about Inessa's past, and we'll probably drive you insane with a hundred questions later, but the issue highest on the agenda is what she did to that Hydra base. Can you fill us in? I don't know how she is with you, but the kid was so traumatized by Hydra, we can't even get her to make eye contact, let alone speak to us. It's just hard to believe the Inessa we know is capable of taking on an entire base alone. She can barely be around more than three people most days."

"I was wondering what was with the sign language. As to what happened with Hydra- it's not the first time she's done this."

"That's what we were afraid of," Banner sighed. Steve hung his head with a heavy sigh.

"When we were kids Nadya would have these nightmares about scientists and labs and experiments, scared the crap out of her half the time. Eventually we figured out what was happening was a kind of sleepwalking- Peanut Butter-" Tony snickered, "-well what do you call it?"

Bucky shrugged, "Nadya."

"When we tried calling Inessa by her given name, she _insisted_ we give that name to the wolf," Natasha explained.

Ivanou frowned, "Is it too weird for you if I call them by the other names?"

"It makes it funnier," Tony prompted.

Natasha silenced him with a look, "Please, call them whatever you want."

"Alright. Anyways- P.B. is the alpha of an entire pack. She gives Nadya some semblance of control, but those things are too close to feral for my liking. If Nadya didn't focus on keeping her abilities in check, a shadow would open somewhere and one of these creatures would get loose until she closed it again. Nadya's nightmares were taking her to a place where the door was weak or where the wolves were coming out. When she realized they weren't dreams, she freaked. She started _watching_ for it. I didn't know she had it in her, but she'd literally _kill_ to protect the victim. She told me she had managed to save five people- and evidently put herself on SHIELD's radar in the process."

"After I got to SHIELD's academy I found a file from a few months before Nadya vanished- reports of monsters attacking from the shadows. Some were accidents, some were intentional. My guess is Hydra ran with it, somehow found her, and brought her in. All I know about what's happened since then is they had the Winter Soldier try to turn her into an Asset- if I'm right in guessing she's what Hydra called 'Project: Echo'." Mallory looked to the Avengers for verification.

There were several uneasy glances, "You're right. Also, in the interest of honesty-" Bucky had introduced himself by name, but he was wearing a hoodie and kept his left hand in the pocket. Now he held it up and pulled the sleeve back. Hydra wasn't keeping him a secret anymore, he knew the metal arm was his key identification.

"Nadya hasn't killed you yet, so I won't, but we'll have words later."

"Understood."

"Anyways- from what I know, two Hydra bases were raided by an unknown enemy one month ago, they lost four guards and two experiments. After that another three were completely wiped out- but no bodies were found, and no blood. Security cameras turned up nothing as well. Based on what I saw in Alaska a few hours ago, I'd have to say Nadya is back on-mission, and she's using her abilities to hide the bodies. Before we left on the helicopter she handed over two people she was keeping tucked away because they were too dangerous to be around others for now, and indicated she has sent six others back to their families. At least, if I'm understanding her correctly- I can only get one-word answers out of her most of the time, and I don't know sign language."

"She must have great trust in you," Thor nodded, "she spoke once, to James Barnes, but beyond that we have heard nothing."

"I'm not surprised," Agent Ivanou side-eyed Bucky, "I can only guess what all he did to get her to talk before."

"It was after that," he looked down, "in New York."

Steve glanced at the others, "Agent Ivanou-"

"Mallory, please."

"-Mallory. Would you mind giving us some time to discuss this among ourselves? Keep Inessa occupied? Maybe take her for a walk around the farm or something. We'll let you know when you can return."

"Sure," Mallory glanced at a coat closet nearby- the door was slightly ajar, "Come on, Nadi."

Bucky jumped- no one had felt the shiver that usually accompanied her appearance, at least not that they noticed. Inessa stepped out of the darkness and walked quickly out of the house with Mallory, ashamed.

They knew the truth now. They knew she was a bad person- a killer and a liar. She thought she could kill to keep her secret- to keep hunting through the shadows for people to save. Before, she would only take the person back, she'd exaggerated to Mallory- the wolves killed, she couldn't stomach it. After? After it was more than just a mission- it was a desperate scramble to save people before Hydra took them beyond saving.

Now it was all for naught- they'd kill her or imprison her for sure.

* * *

It took record time for the Avengers to agree on what should be done- only half an hour. A remote Suit informed Mallory and Inessa that it was safe to return to the farmhouse. Inessa opened a door in the first suitable shadow and they stepped out into the hallway of the farmhouse. Her insides rolled. She was terrified. Most of the group was looking away. Clint was pale, but he looked determined. They wouldn't meet her eyes- and for once she wished they would. Steve alone watched her, and his gaze scared her even more. Mallory stood back, waiting to hear what the Avengers had decided. If she disagreed, she was taking Nadya and leaving.

"Inessa, Natasha offered you a permanent place here. Do you still want it?"

 _Yes_.

"Even if it means you can't keep attacking Hydra?"

She inhaled sharply and looked back to Mallory, alarmed. "I know more Hydra bases than you. SHIELD is putting together a joint strike force to start flushing them out. Nadi, I know what this means to you, especially now, but- I hate to say this- you have to let the grown-ups fight this war."

"Same. Age." Everyone was shocked by Inessa's harsh whisper. She spoke through clenched teeth and put great effort into the words. Her voice was rough, unused.

Mallory just shook her head, "Not anymore. As far as I'm concerned, you're only 16. After what you've been through? You could be 14 still. Nadi, we're _trained_ for this. We're better equipped to handle both Hydra and the people they are hurting. We can't let a kid risk her life against these bastards. Even if you _can_ rip them apart without so much as a stubbed toe. You've been a prisoner, I won't let you become some child soldier."

Steve drew her attention back, "Until you are 18, you don't get to fight. You can be an Avenger one day, but for the next 2 years we focus on getting you better, and on training. Then you attack when _we_ all agree to attack. _Do you still want to join_?"

Inessa looked from Steve to Mallory, lost. "SHIELD has ways to block your powers now, and we are willing to share them with Hydra to keep you out of harm's way," Mallory lied. Inessa looked at the Avengers one-by-one. She took a knee by Clint and began to sign for him to translate.

_I can save people. They can't hurt me- I can save people!_

"That's not what we're discussing," Steve shook his head, "You're a kid. Just because a kid can fight a war, doesn't mean we make them soldiers. If you walk out now, SHIELD gives Hydra the ability to lock you out for good. If you agree to training and _professional_ help getting through all of this, then you can resume the fight as an adult. Which one do you chose?"

She gaped at the group and tried to read their expressions. Natasha, Clint, Thor, and Banner were all united with Steve. Bucky and Sam looked less certain, and Tony was just on-edge about the whole thing. That frequency- the one Hydra used to use- she knew it had something to do with why she had been locked out of the Valley- she couldn't risk them using it to keep her away for good. The only way for her to get her revenge was to give it up- for now.

 _Fine_. Inessa turned her back on the Avengers and pushed past Mallory on her way to the stairs. She didn't want to _look_ at them.

"Inessa- there's one more thing," Steve's voice was soft. Inessa stopped with a foot on the steps. "We want to trust you- really we do. But the same rule applies to you as Bucky- you have to earn that trust again. Until then... Until then, you're grounded. Tony, go ahead."

She didn't have time to wonder what he meant by 'grounded' before Tony activated the device. It felt like someone had punched her in the side of the head. Inessa cried out and fell onto the steps. She grabbed her aching head, struggled to breathe. Her muscles were locked tight and straining. Tony dialed it down carefully and walked over to her. "The implant- as a feature I added a low-range speaker. It was supposed to act like a comm, since you don't have one of your own. I'm sorry, I calculated the frequency too high. You'll feel a little out of it at first, but I promise that will fade as we fine-tune the signal."

"You're grounded to this plane," Clint came over and put a hand on Inessa's back. She was panting, kneeling on two steps and holding herself up by the stair rail. "Until we're sure you'll keep up your end of the deal, you won't be able to go into the Valley. No more doors. No more windows."

_The enemy-_

"For your own sake, we'll risk it," more than anything, that had been what made the Avengers hesitate in their plan. If they were in someone's cross-hairs, did they really want to take out the one person who could see their enemy? She was still a kid. It always came back to that- no matter how grave their need.

Inessa strained to open a door to the Valley- but it was like she was hitting a glass wall. She reached back and tried to pull out the implant, desperate. A series of shocks emanated from it. The Avengers stood back and watched sadly as the implant defended itself and effectively tazed the attacker. Inessa gave up before the shocks reached too high of a voltage- it would knock her out if it needed to to make sure she kept it in.

Betrayed, confused, angry, Inessa scrambled to her feet and threw herself at Clint, knocking him over. She ran out of the farmhouse at full speed towards the heart of the cornfield- from there she would turn sharply, change her course. She couldn't leave the farm- not with Tony's suits on patrol, but she could hide until she found a way to remove the implant.

The Avengers watched her flee in silence, ashamed. They didn't doubt their decision, but every one of them regretted it. "She'll come around, Nadi's always been very level-headed. She'll understand, once the shock wears off." Mallory promised.

"Mind if we have that talk now?" Bucky asked, "Being yelled at might make me feel better."

* * *

 

I promise, fun stuff coming soon (including an Avengers-wide prank war), the unpleasantness just had to be worked out first to move the story along.


	16. Chapter 14: What Comes Next

**Chapter 14: Clint's Farmhouse**

"You didn't do this?! You honestly expect me to believe that?!" Bucky shouted as he pulled over a hundred tiny magnets off his metal arm.

Tony couldn't stop laughing long enough to muster up his own defense. He just held his hands in surrender. In a long, winding loop someone had used tiny strips of word-magnets to spell out a _very_ dirty joke. Banner just shook his head, "I warned you against napping near this guy, it's your own fault."

Bucky looked around, glaring into every corner of the room looking for evidence. Tony was the obvious choice for a culprit, too obvious maybe? It would have taken a very long time to put the words in order, then constantly lift his arm and turn it to attach the phrases. They hadn't taken it off, that would have woken Bucky pretty damn fast... Maybe Tony was the wrong one. Steve? No, Steve's sense of humor was still frozen in the Arctic. Thor? Thor knew dirty jokes, that was for sure, but this sounded like one from _this_ era, not the 1400s, so probably not. Natasha, Clint, or Sam seemed like the most obvious choices... It had to be one of the assassins- Clint or Nat could move carefully and quietly enough to keep from waking him. Clint liked dirty jokes, but Natasha had more finesse. "Dammit, which one of you did this?!"

"Which one of who did what?" Steve came in from the front porch, soaked. He saw the magnets on Bucky's arm and looked to Tony, confused.

"Don't worry, I had JARVIS do a full scan of it, I'll print the joke off for you later."

"What are you, three?" There was no venom in Steve's voice when he spoke to Tony- for once. He was just tired and cold.

"I didn't do it!" Tony laughed again and tried to force his face into a more serious expression (with limited success), "Scout's honor!"

Natasha was drying her hands on a towel when she came into the living room, "Any luck finding her?"

Steve shook his head, "Couldn't get far though, most of the farm is mud right now. I went out far enough to see the buildings are still dark. Wherever Inessa is hiding, she doesn't want to be found."

"I'm sorry," Mallory came out from the study, "I really thought she'd come around by now."

"WHICH ONE OF YOU FUCKERS TURNED OFF THE HOT WATER IN THE MIDDLE OF MY SHOWER?" Clint's roar drifted down the stairs.

Everyone looked to Natasha. "What?" she shrugged, "How was I supposed to know that if you turn on the kitchen sink, the dishwasher, and flush the downstairs toilet at the same time it screws with the upstairs shower approximately fifteen seconds after the fact?"

"Did you do this then?" Bucky demanded. He was halfway up his forearm, and the joke continued all the way to the edge of his shoulder plate. It would take forever to peel off the magnets one by one.

Natasha frowned, "I'd use stickers. You're dealing with an amateur."

"We shouldn't be screwing around, we should be finding Inessa," Bucky grumbled, "especially in this weather."

"If there's anything Nadi was always good at, it's finding a way to get by. She's somewhere safe and dry and warm. I just hope she gets back here soon, our Director needs me back at HQ. I leave tomorrow evening and I want to see her before I leave." Mallory wrung her hands and looked out the window towards the back of the farm- at least, as far as she could see in the downpour.

Steve walked over and hit Tony on the shoulder, "You said we could track her with the implant, what's the deal?"

"The deal is," his glance to Mallory was so subtle even Natasha didn't catch it, "I agree with the decision to let her find her way back. She knows where we are. Just keep the windows open when you cook dinner- if the wind isn't blowing in rain. She'll smell food and come home. She can't hold out forever."

Banner disagreed on this point, "What if she's injured or the toxin is building up again? She was closer to getting a refill than she was to when you installed it."

"JARVIS?"

"Toxin levels are reading as tolerable. Miss Inessa has another three days before symptoms begin to manifest and levels become dangerous."

"I'm not fighting this battle again," Steve threw up his hands and went upstairs to find fresh clothes. Mallory glanced up as Clint came down.

"I'm going to write another letter to Nadi, in case she doesn't get back in time."

Natasha raised an eyebrow, "Over the last four days you've written a lot of letters up there."

"I haven't even known my best friend was _alive_ for seven years. We've got catching up to do, even if it _is_ one-sided." Mallory jogged up the steps before Natasha could pry any further. Tony knew, but only because she needed him to keep JARVIS from reporting Nadya's location. Her excuse to spend so much time in Inessa's room was thin, but it worked. Natasha wasn't on the pre-approved list, so she had to be kept out of it.

* * *

**Inessa's Room**

Mallory flipped on the lights and closed the door behind her. She locked it, picked up a pillow from the bed, and set it carefully at the bottom of the door to block any curious eyes peeping under it (not that any of the Avengers were likely to try that). Just in case Natasha came snooping, Mallory sat down with her back against the door. She could explain away the pillow (a back cushion) and the locked door (to keep anyone from opening it into her). She cleared her throat twice, and Nadya came out of the bathroom.

When Steve pronounced the "grounding" and they stripped her of her powers, Nadya had been determined to hide and never come back- the first night of torrential, icy rain made that plan moot. As far as the others knew, she was still in the wind, but Mallory helped keep her hidden upstairs. At least for now, until she was ready to face the rest of the group. Nadya was of the same mind as Mallory- they hadn't seen one another in so long, she was willing to forgive Mallory's compliance with the Avengers plan if only to have time to spend with her friend. She was the closest thing Nadya had to real family. The whole  _reason_ Mallory joined SHIELD was to try to find out what happened to her in the first place! They were siblings reunited, and nothing was going to get in the way of that.

Mallory pulled from her pocket a new Stark invention- lovingly dubbed the "Cone of silence". When she activated it, it sealed her and Inessa in a bubble, cut off from everyone else- they could hear the Avengers in the hall (if they made enough noise), but Natasha could have an ear against the door itself and not hear them.

"They're worried about you, you know." Inessa just shrugged and looked away. Around Mallory, her improvement was massive, most conversations were now done fully-spoken and with eye contact. "Nadi-"

"Inessa." when she spoke, it was still in a harsh whisper, even without the added temper.

Mallory shook her head, "I can't get in the habit of calling you that, sorry. You're still Little Nadi to me."

"Then Nessie."

"Little Nessie. Fine. Hey- I learned something about you today. Sam said they were trying to get you to practice being in this form again, you keep taking strolls out-of-body. Do you remember when you first learned to do that? What grade were we in? Fourth? It used to give you migraines for days. You _hated_ that."

"Like being cross-eyed. I still get headaches..."

"Then there's another reason you should just go with this," Mallory pointed out. "By the end of it you'll stop falling out of your body, and you'll stop _getting_ headaches. Two years isn't so long, really. It just feels like it at _your age,_ youngin."

"I know _exactly_ how long two years is." Inessa's whisper silenced Mallory for a time. She couldn't argue with her there, "Change topics."

"Fine. You win this round." She held up her hands in surrender, "Someone used those little cut-out word magnets to write a dirty joke on Bucky's arm. They wrapped them all the way from the fingertips to the shoulder plate. Every bit of metal is covered, just about. They're trying to figure out which one did it. Oh, and Natasha pranked Clint, but you probably heard that shout. I'm willing to bet you're on the edge of a full-on prank war. You used to kick ass at those, that damn poker-face of yours..."

Inessa remained quiet and looked at the floor. She rubbed the back of her neck, around where the implant was. Her skin was gouged and gashed around it- the results of her unsuccessful first through fourth attempts to remove it before the shock knocked her out. Mallory leaned to the side to get a look, "Does it need more medicine? You shouldn't mess with it, you'll get an infection."

"Thanks mom."

Mallory laughed, "Did I ever tell you I found out my mom wanted to adopt you?" Inessa glanced up at that, interested, "Yeah! No joke- she had a lawyer advising her and she'd filled out all this paperwork to sue to have you taken away from Dimitri. She wanted to get your permission to go forward. Apparently she was planning on taking you aside at my birthday party the week after you vanished. If we didn't have Hydra to worry about now, I'm sure she'd be more than happy to get _that_ ball rolling again." A tear shimmered in Mallory's eye, "I'll wait until you're ready too, but oh my god... she's going to be so happy to see you again."

"I have to- have to stay here. Here I get revenge. In two years." It was a contender for the longest speech she'd given.

"Then get your ass in gear, girl," Mallory kept her tone light, Inessa still didn't respond well to any kind of tough act. "No one is asking you to piss away two years sitting in here. As soon as you go through that door, Natasha will start training you to spar. You can learn fighting, how to be a super-spy, how to be _awesome_. They're on the phone with SHIELD constantly- trying to find a good shrink to help bring you through this. Look at how much power you've got now- how many more things can you do than before? When you're stable- when you can focus without jumping at everything- how much _more_ powerful will you be? And you have to train for two years, but if you can prove to them you're willing to work on it and be patient? They might turn off that speaker and let you have your powers back sooner!"

Inessa just shook her head, "And next time? They turn my power off when they want. They lock me here when they want."

"Until you're 18? Yes. But once you hit that age they'll remove the implant entirely. You'll be completely free to do what _you_ want. To use your powers day in and day out, if that's what makes you happy."

"You don't know that!"

"I trust them. And you sitting around in here pouting won't help anyone with anything."

Inessa's glare was more sad than angry, "Let me think. Change topic."

She'd said all she could on the subject, so Mallory gave in to Inessa's legendary stubborn-streak, "Fine. What should we change topic to? Oh, hey, remember Kelsey Sinclair? That little skank who always acted like she was _so_ superior just because her father was a lawyer?" Inessa nodded, "Well guess who got knocked up junior year of high school."

Mallory kept Inessa entertained with idle gossip and caught her up on seven years worth of stories and adventures. She wouldn't push Inessa anymore, the ball was squarely in her court. She had to  _decide_ it was time to start trusting the Avengers. Even before what Hydra did to her she wasn't one to be pushed.  _After_ all that? Even if Bucky only told her  _half_ the story it all still sounded like more than her little Nadya could ever have survived, let alone come out the other side. Mallory knew the girl underneath the trauma, but between Hydra and her five years fused with the wolf, Inessa was still figuring out  _what_ she was, let alone who she could be.

Mallory knew her audience wasn't entirely paying attention to what she was saying, but it felt good to chat and act like a schoolgirl again with her best friend. It gave Mallory hope for the future.

* * *

**The Loft**

"Wait, I do not understand," Thor frowned, "does she not know the man is the Phantom?"

"No," Banner was the only one who'd read the book, "she thinks the Phantom and the Angel are two different people."

Natasha shook her head, "But they just did a whole song where she was talking about the Phantom being the one who's been stalking her."

"Pedo alert," Clint grabbed a handful of popcorn and started working his way through it.

With the rain showing no sign of stopping, the Avengers were forced to make their semi-nightly fire-pit meeting an indoor movie night. Each Avenger suggested one movie, then they drew from a hat- no one would admit to requesting "The Phantom of the Opera"- but Thor agreed to the choice with the most enthusiasm. Apparently Asgard, while having epic poems sung before large gatherings, had no concept of musical or operatic theater, so he was very keen on the movie.

"What is a 'pedo'? And I still don't understand if she knows he is the Phantom or not." Thor made a mental note to request the novel from Banner later.

"I'm not explaining that one," Natasha put her hand on her nose and the others rapidly followed suit- childish, but effective. The honors went to Tony.

In the movie, the Phantom was chasing after a backstage man. They struggled above the performance, the Phantom slipped the nose around his neck-

Inessa slumped into the empty seat next to Bucky and Clint jumped just as the man's body was thrown from the rafters and the music reached it's climax. He spun around to see who'd sat down but Mallory put a hand on his shoulder and shook her head. With the rain thundering outside, no one had heard the two enter.

"Nessie, for what it's worth, I'm s-"

Mallory cut Steve off with a whisper, "-it's OK. Don't push her." her tone was not unkind.

Natasha was sitting on the floor in front of Clint. She reached over and patted Inessa's knee, but said nothing. Bucky held the bowl of popcorn to her. She ignored it. Steve glanced back at Mallory and mouthed a simple _thank you_. As she walked around the couch to grab a seat, Sam and Banner both held up a hand for a quiet high-five.

After a few moments Thor broke the silence once again, "Well does she know the Angel and the Phantom are the same person or doesn't she?!"

Four out of eight Avengers threw popcorn at him.

* * *

 


	17. Chapter 15: The Prank War

**Chapter 15: Clint's Farm - Tony's Workshop**

"OK, that's weird," Tony came down to his makeshift lab after the end of the movie to work through a few equations before the night was over. What he found was Clint, sitting half in the shadows.

Clint slipped off his stool and approached Tony slowly, cautiously. "I have a proposition for you."

Tony raised an eyebrow, "Speak, O Flightless One."

"Don't rub it in unless you intend to give me wings like Sam's too."

"Not happening. What do you want?"

"Fine, Natasha has become a problem that must be dealt with. She has allies, powerful ones, ones that would destroy me if I stepped out of line."

Tony nodded, understanding at last, "You're looking for an alliance. Why should I help you?"

"Because I can help you. Your enemy, like mine, sleeps in the same _room_ as you. Nat won't team up with me. We both know who she'll turn to- Steve. I mean to declare war, but only if I know I have the upper hand. That's you."

He considered it for a long time, "There are certainly strategic advantages... Deal." they shook on it. Clint grinned wickedly.

* * *

Sam turned back from the stairs to the barn and hit Banner on the shoulder, "Clint and Tony are teaming up. You and me take them on?"

"Yeah, sure."

Natasha flipped through some DVDs, trying to pick a movie for the Avengers still up for a second round, "Teams of two then?"

"Sounds good to me," Steve nodded.

Bucky was busy making several fresh bags of popcorn. He poured one bag into a bowl and tossed another in the microwave. "Hey Thor," Bucky walked halfway out of the kitchen to call down the hallway.

"Yes, James?"

"In the interest of preventing domestic violence, want to be on my team?"

There was a _whirl_ of wheels and Thor slid into the hallway on his computer chair, "To what are you referring?"

"Prank war," Natasha clarified.

Thor brightened immediately, "Of course! I know many practical jokes!" he frowned for a moment, "Although, many may be fatal for Midgardians..."

Bucky laughed loudly, "We're _so_ going to win."

"Not if we have anything to say about it." Natasha grinned at Steve.

He glanced over at Inessa, still sitting alone on the couch, ignoring them. "Who would you like to team up with? You get your pick."

Inessa crossed her arms and refused to answer. She had to train with these people to get her powers back, she didn't have to be friendly. Mallory just rolled her eyes, "She's her own team. Trust me, you all don't stand a chance. Nadi- _Nessie_ \- is a pro. Just don't play cards against her."

"Too late," Natasha smiled. She glanced through the DVDs again and set them back on the shelf, "Someone else choose, nothing's catching my attention."

Banner raised his hand, "I think I know one Nessie would enjoy. It's called 'Gattaca'."

"Go for it," Banner stood and retrieved the keyboard that tied in to JARVIS' digital media database.

Bucky finished up with the popcorn and began to pass out the newly-filled bowls. He tipped in to Thor's room and pulled the Asgardian from his computer by wheeling him out the door and sliding the chair across the room towards the television, "Stop asking google if Christine knew the Angel was the Phantom, you're not going to find an answer."

* * *

When dawn came around, all morning runners were shaking tacks out of their shoes. "Amateur hour," Natasha scoffed. She walked down the hall to Inessa's door and knocked before opening. Mallory and Inessa were up and ready to go- begrudgingly.

"So, you have any big plans for this prank war?" Mallory chose to fill the silence. She could see Nadya was on the tipping point- if the Avengers played their cards right her temper could break that day and then everything would be right with their world again.

"Took us all night, but I think Steve and I have a few good ones worked out."

There was a screech of feedback through the comms and Natasha and Inessa both winced. A moment later Sam came on, shouting, "YOU COULD HAVE BROKEN MY ANKLE! WHICH ONE OF YOU SADISTS DID THAT?!"

Natasha burst out laughing. She opened her comm and replied innocently, "That was meant for Bucky, not you."

"HE PUSHED ME INTO IT!" Sam was shouting from the bottom of a 6 foot pit that had been covered by a tarp and sand. They were jogging as usual when Bucky suddenly stopped. Once Sam caught up to him he lightly shoved him to the left and- crash.

"Rule number one of a prank war- change your routine," Steve was definitely enjoying this. Natasha and the girls ran through the opposite end of the cornfield as they usually did. Inessa saw something shining in front of them and grabbed Mallory's arm. They slowed to a stop. Natasha glanced back and missed the flash of metal- she ran smack into the invisible barrier. They were prepared this time for the feedback from the comms and the cursing.

"Rule number two," Tony came over comms now, "anticipate rule number one."

* * *

Meal times were "truce" times- no Avenger dared mess with the edibles, that was just uncivilized. As soon as breakfast was over, however, the melee began again. Steve went outside with a book to read as Natasha trained Sam, but a bucket of water was waiting, balanced on top of the door. Thor roared with laughter as the bucket crashed onto his head and Steve cursed, dripping, and started shaking out his book. Before he thought to move out of place, a second trap was triggered by the slamming of the screen door behind him- a precariously hung bottle fell from the rafters above the porch and nailed him in the groin.

While Steve's language reached truly impressive heights, Bucky came out and nodded appreciatively at his work, "Rule number three- set two traps."

Inessa pushed past the buffoons in a fresh set of exercise clothes. She paced the edge of the sparring ring, waiting for Natasha. After a moment, Nat climbed out through an upstairs window, eyed her landing carefully, and jumped down. She didn't know Steve had already triggered the trap over the door, and she was entirely unwilling to be pranked again.

"Alright," Natasha dusted off her sweatpants and met Inessa's eyes. It was a weird feeling- looking straight into her eyes with hardly a flinch. If nothing else, taking away her powers had pissed off the kid enough to get her past the worst of her social issues. She was out for blood now- a whole new kind of dangerous. "First things first, I want to see how you fight. Or even _if_ you can fight." she kept her tone cold, emotionless. No babying- Inessa was the one who said (signed) that she could handle training, it was up to her to keep her end of the deal.

Nat raised her fist and feigned a dive for Inessa. The girl began to breathe fast and hard, but she lowered her shoulders into a fighting stance all the same. Her hands trembled and sweat broke out on her brow. Natasha loosened her own stance, "Ness, this is a huge step. You don't have to start now. No one here wants you to do anything you're not ready for-"

"-attack." Inessa's breathing slowed slightly.

Natasha nodded and without further adieu attacked. She kept her movements deliberately slow, made stupid mistakes, anything to give Inessa a challenge, but keep the advantage in her court. That didn't mean she let some hits land- those were to gauge her strength. Several Avengers watched from the porch, intrigued.

Inessa opened with a swing to Natasha's head- quickly countered by a strike to the stomach. She kicked out at Natasha's knee- a move that, if it had landed, would have dislocated or even broken the kneecap- not that it would ever land against more than an untrained street thug. Inessa spun around her, keeping her feet moving at all times, forcing Natasha to spin as well. It was a good strategy, but there was a lag in her movement while she spun. Nat made a mental note.

After five minutes of the mock-sparring, Natasha swept low and knocked Inessa's legs from her. The girl fell, panting. "You're keeping your hands too far from your body, you go from move to move too slowly and in a predictable sequence, there's no force in any of your hits, and I can tell that spinning move is one you use with your abilities, and you don't have those for now so don't rely on it. Also," she checked a bloodless scratch on her arm, "you fight with your fingernails. It's probably something you picked up when you were with the wolf. With your abilities, could you form talons like what you and Nadya had?"

Inessa nodded. She wasn't speaking still, but more out of spite than fear or conditioning.

"Good, I'll train you with special gloves after you've mastered basic hand-to-hand. You fight like a kid used to living on the streets, it's my job now to fix that. We'll start building muscle first. Now, put your leg out in front of you." Inessa did as she was told, "No, straight out, right angle to the other leg." it was difficult, but she managed something close enough for Natasha. "Good," Nat pulled a timer out of her pocket and set it on the ground in front of Inessa, "That's going to go off every five minutes for the next half hour. When it beeps, switch legs, then switch back. Keep them up though, or I restart the entire thing. It's how I started, and it'll feel like hell, but you'll build muscles you never knew you had."

Natasha turned away and called Sam down for his regular training. Mallory's mouth was hanging open, "Wait, so I have _you_ to thank for that? They made us do that for _weeks_ at SHIELD! Worst three months of my life!"

"But it worked, didn't it?" Natasha smiled.

Mallory considered it, "Actually, yeah. Still sucks though." she winked to Inessa who already was having trouble balancing and lifted her own leg in a show of support.

* * *

"Tip among friends?" Tony stopped Bucky as he walked into the barn, eating from a large tub of mayonnaise. "Vanilla pudding in the mayo jar is too cliche, everyone knows that one now. You've got to modern-up your game or you're toast."

Bucky grumbled, "I was hoping to get Sam with this one."

"You've got a handicap- you and Thor? You're the weakest team. At least Steve has Natasha to help, you and Thor just swirl around the old ideas." he patted Bucky's metal shoulder, "You'll get there, not in time for this prank war, but maybe in the next."

The Winter Soldier just sighed, disappointed. He picked at he pudding some more, then offered it to Tony, "You want some at least? It's a shit-ton of pudding, and I grew up in the Depression. Something like this was beyond gold to us back then, I'd hate to see it go to waste."

"Sure thing," Tony took custody of the pudding tub. On an impulse, he sniffed it, then laughed at Bucky's confused expression, "Just in case you were crazy enough to eat actual mayo as a prank." Tony took a small scoop, then a much larger one. A fowl taste filled his mouth and he began to choke.

Bucky jumped out of the way as Tony hurled the mayo jar at him, "Vanilla pudding in the mayo jar was old when _I_ was young, sonny boy, but a layer of vanilla on top of garlic mayonnaise? Your father taught me that little jewel." he walked away, cackling.

* * *

By midday Inessa was considering taking a knife to the implant again. Anything but this new torture. Her legs were jelly, and Natasha was fast on the way to making her arms useless as well by having her hold them out to the sides with a 10lb bag of sand in each. Mallory, familiar with this one too, assured her it would get easier- around two weeks from then when the bags were filled to weigh twenty pounds, then thirty two weeks after that. Natasha was brutal.

"SON OF A BITCH!" Clint came running out of the house with nothing but a towel wrapped around his bottom half. He was a slight green-yellow color, and it was dripping onto the towel as well. "WHICH ONE OF YOU DID IT?! THE SHOWER IS A SACRED SPACE!" Steve covered his nose as a strange odor assaulted him.

Banner stood up from one of the lawn chairs around the fire pit and walked over to high-five Sam in the sparring ring. Natasha raised her eyebrows, amused, "Chicken bouillon in the shower head?"

"A whole brick of it," Sam said proudly.

* * *

Before dinner every Avenger had scored more points (though no one was officially keeping track).

Bucky and Thor duct-taped an air-horn to the pedestal of the computer chair in the main farmhouse, then raised it to maximum. When Steve sat down and adjusted the chair, he nearly broke the desk jumping back up. A few moments later, when Sam was trying to shake out some indoor rugs during clean-up duty, Thor summoned a thunderstorm to drench only him- and it followed him whenever he was outdoors for two hours.

Banner and Sam got their revenge on the two though- Thor left his sandals woefully un-defended, and were he not a God, he would have broken his neck in the fall down the stairs when he rushed down to stop a fight in the workshop, slipped on the sandals, and found that the tips were nailed to the floor. The resulting crash and screams of rage sent the two into hiding until dinner time. It didn't matter- they'd already left a box of chocolates sitting out next to the groceries on the porch (left there by Clint as he unloaded the car for Natasha to use). The only catch (which Clint discovered instead of the intended target- Natasha) was that once you opened the lid of the box, the bees imprisoned inside made it very clear how un-funny they found the joke to be.

Clint's partnership with Tony didn't bear as much fruit as both expected. The shield in the middle of the running path that morning had pretty much been their best idea. Banner's afternoon nap on the porch gave them the opportunity to field-test a new heat-activated adhesive (which performed above expectations. Banner's newly-waxed back as a result almost ended with a Hulk-out). Beyond that though they were mostly on the receiving end. Tony went through nearly his entire tube of toothpaste, wondering all the while why it wasn't putting a dent in the garlic overdose in his mouth before he realized Bucky or Thor had _also_ gotten to it with the spices. Clint's bowstrings had been covered in some sort of wax which ended up making his fingers slip off the string mid-draw. It was going to be a _long_ _time_ before he could live down giving _himself_ a black eye.

Natasha and Steve were the golden team, or so everyone thought. They hit Sam with the hunting trap (though that one was meant for Bucky), stapled the collar of Tony's shirt to his worktable when he fell asleep on it (the fall out from that is what sent Thor head-first down the stairs), packed the bathroom fan with glitter as soon as Clint thought it was safe to shower again (now he was sparkly _and_ smelled like chicken soup!), covered Banner's back in honey instead of aloe after his little waxing experience, replaced Thor's insect-repellent with sugar water (which would pay off the next time they sat around the fire), and, of course, Steve had already gotten Bucky the day before with a well-spent three hours arranging and then attaching tiny magnets to his arm while he claimed to be out looking for Inessa (Mallory wasn't as good of a liar as she thought- he could see Inessa sneaking around in her room from outside).

By the time May showed up to collect Mallory, everyone was exhausted and ready to declare Natasha the winner- the only one to be pranked just once.

Inessa walked (as best she could) Mallory out to the helicopter hand-in-hand. "Give it a chance, alright? I promise you, it's not going to be as bad as you think."

"I'll try," Inessa promised.

Mallory pulled her into a tight hug and kissed her on the cheek, "Thank you for not being dead," her eyes welled up with tears she couldn't suppress, "I really thought I'd lost my little sister."

Inessa smiled as she pulled away. Ever since they were five they'd called one another 'sister', she didn't realize it until Mallory spoke, but she had never thought she'd hear that again- and it meant the world to her. "Be safe, big sister."

"You too," Mallory wiped her eyes quickly and called out to the Avengers watching from the porch, "Take care of her or I'll come back here and kick all your asses!" they waved and she climbed into the helicopter next to Agent May. The older woman picked up a box and handed it to her with a wink. Mallory passed it to Inessa, "Make me proud."

The chopper blades began to churn and Inessa backed away quickly. She waved and watched until the chopper vanished from sight. She had been afraid when her friend left she'd go back to how she had been- more closed off, scared, disconnected. But the strength was still there. Inessa just had to be reminded of what it felt like to be Nadya again- even if she couldn't stand to take up the name. There was still a lot of work to be done, but it didn't seem so overwhelming now that she knew she had a friend. Before the others came to her, she opened the box and looked inside- then suppressed a wicked grin.

* * *

"The food truce still stands, right?" Bucky asked wearily as the group picked at their stew.

"Yeah, why?" Tony was the cook of the day, and he was actually very proud of the fact that he resisted tampering with everything- especially after what Bucky had done to him.

Natasha lifted up a spoonful and let it drip back into the bowl, "So it's _supposed_ to taste like this?"

"I told you all I'm not a cook, it's never been my forte, _you_ insisted my name be in the hat."

As one, the Avengers and Inessa took a dinner roll. "Would it offend, Tony Stark, if I had pop-tarts for dinner?" Thor enjoyed the little pastries still.

"I would be _offended_ if we didn't order some pizzas instead of choking this down," Tony wasn't ashamed to admit it tasted like shit.

Steve stood up, "I'll call, who wants what?" It took twenty minutes more to sort through everyone's orders and find compromises, then Steve went down the hall to the study. No sooner was he out of the kitchen than they heard a bizarre scream. Everyone jumped up and ran into the hall. Steve was laying on the floor, twitching. Natasha checked his pulse, he was fine, but his whole body was in spasms. He groaned as they subsided, "Who... Put... Nat's... Tazer... Dart... On... The... Handle?" he had to pant the words out.

Clint's mouth fell open. He inspected the door carefully- no evidence of any of Natasha's lovingly named "Widow-Bites". Banner retrieved a pair of rubber cleaning gloves from the kitchen and pushed through the crowd. He opened the den door quickly and slipped in. Sure enough- on the back of the doorknob was a small blue disk. Banner hit the center of it and deactivated it. He peeled it away from the door and held it up. "Natasha, come on- we already voted you the winner!"

"I didn't do it!" she protested, laughing now at Steve.

"I'm your teammate!" he grumbled as he got to his feet.

"I swear! Come on-" Natasha waved for him to follow, "You order pizza," she called to Banner. She led Steve, Sam, Bucky, and Tony upstairs to her room. When Natasha grabbed the handle of her door (to retrieve her case of the "Bites" and prove none were missing), she was launched back into the boys. The shock wasn't at any sort of dangerous level, but it was enough to smart and piss her off, "WHAT THE HELL?!"

Three more shouts came from downstairs- more victims. "How many doors did you booby-trap?" Tony was incredulous.

"THIS ISN'T ME!" Natasha snapped.

Another angry scream came from downstairs a moment later, "WE WERE JUST IN HERE WHO PUT A WIDOW-BITE ON THE KITCHEN SINK?" Poor Clint- for someone who enjoyed playing pranks he had certainly been the victim of several that day.

By the time the pizza boy arrived every Avenger was on the rampage trying to figure out who had trapped all the doors. Banner had taken his rubber gloves off to dial the phone and they promptly vanished. Even sitting on the couch became a hazard- that was how Sam and Tony were finally hit. Inessa had the right idea- at some point in the chaos she simply sat in the middle of the living room on the hardwood and refused to budge. The pizza had to be retrieved by Bucky- who's metal arm had fallen off and vanished- he still didn't know how or where it was. He'd gotten it jammed in a door and the next thing he knew he came away but it didn't. When he'd broken into the room (and been severely shocked for his pains), there was no-one there and the window was open.

The pizza boy was slightly afraid of the manic look in Bucky's eyes, either that or by the screams of those still being hit with wave after wave of electric shock. "Electric short of some kind," Bucky tried to explain, "Nothing major."

"Oh," the kid nodded, pretending to understand, "Um, ok. Hey, this was in the middle of the front gate, by the way- I think the mail man just got lazy this time. It happens." he handed Bucky a round metal tin- an old film reel?

"Thanks, keep the change," Bucky tipped generously enough that he hoped the boy wouldn't draw too much attention to the farm.

"Thank you, sir!" he grinned from ear-to-ear, "Oh, and hey! I like the lightning rod, very 'Terminator'!" the kid ran back to his car and Bucky frowned.

"Lightning rod?" he walked out of the house and looked up. On the top of the highest peak was his metal arm, "SON OF A BITCH!"

Inessa kept her poker face throughout the mayhem. Mallory had given her twenty of those darts (donated by SHIELD for the prank-war). Bucky's arm? Well, that was just a matter of seeing an opportunity and taking it (literally). After he struck her, when she went to bring him out of the loft, he'd removed his arm. Inessa had a photographic memory, and it turned out she had just the right touch too. She sat in the middle of the floor, a picture of innocence, and accepted her dinner while the others tried to find all of the tazer darts.

It didn't help that each time they found one, she'd steal it and put it back into circulation.

* * *

"Pizza guy thinks the mail man left this, anyone claiming responsibility?" Bucky held the film canister up as though it were alive and dangerous.

"Not mine, scouts honor," Tony was exhausted- they all were- from the stress and strain of the day. In all they found twelve of the little darts, and prayed that was the end of them. The other Avengers denied any sort of involvement with the canister as well.

"I think I've got an old projector upstairs," Clint gingerly stood and went to retrieve the heavy case from the attic.

Bucky pried the lid off the case and braced for something horrible to happen- but inside was, as advertised, a reel of film. He picked it up and read the label on it, "Projekt Rebirth, German spelling, dated 1938."

"Huh?" Steve came over to check the reel, "I'm Project Rebirth, and it certainly wasn't 1938." he thought through it for a moment, "Wait- OK, I might know what this is. Before he worked with SHIELD, Doctor Erskine worked in a lab with Red Skull, it's how Skull got his powers. He tested the serum on himself."

"Got it!" Clint came back into the room with the large hard-sided case. He stood back and let Bucky and Steve figure out how to make it work and load in the film- it was from their era after all.

"Why is someone sending us Red Skull's old home movies?"

Natasha rolled her eyes when Bucky pointed the projector at a blank wall and focused the reel, "What the hell kind of a joke is this? Which one of you two monkeys thought it would be funny to play with photoshop?"

"Do you know that kid?" Clint asked, incredulous. She looked very familiar, but he couldn't quite pinpoint it. She'd have to be at least in her late 80s, early 90s now, she looked to be ten in the footage. The girl was bone-thin, probably some kid brought in from the streets. Erskine and the Doctor who would one day be Red Skull- Johann Schmidt- appeared to be discussing something. The kid coughed and what could have been blood sprayed out. Erskine immediately went to her to dab at her mouth and comfort the sick child, "Tuberculosis? Maybe?"

"You did this one, didn't you?" Natasha glared at Clint, "It's not funny, just weird."

"What's weird?" Tony was incredulous. The footage jumped- now the kid was in a machine.

"That looks like what they put me into, just a more basic version," Steve frowned as the doors closed and lights began to flash around the girl. When it opened, when the smoke cleared, the girl looked less skeletal. She looked _strong_. Almost like a different child.

A man went into the machine next, but Natasha ignored the video, "Fess up, which one of you thought this would be funny?"

"What are you talking about?" Sam was thoroughly confused.

"Like you don't know that's me. Come on, even SHIELD doesn't have pictures of me at that age to use for an edit. Who found what where?"

"Nat, I don't think any of us-" Steve looked around at the others. Everyone shook their head. Even Inessa looked confused and concerned.

Natasha was just pissed, "Look, by that age I was already in Black Widow training in the Red Room, and I didn't leave until I was twenty at least. So which one of you found Red Room footage? Huh? That was a _horrific_ place. You shouldn't even use that stuff as a joke."

"JARVIS, send a suit in to check the footage for edit points," Tony spoke into his comm. Everyone watched the footage in silence until the suit arrived- young Natasha fighting the older man, improving day by day. There was a shot of her standing with one leg out in front of her- just like she'd had Inessa do.

A memory jumped out at Steve as the suit turned off the footage and collected the reel for scanning. They'd just gotten Bucky sedated (very much against his will) for the operation that would remove the metal arm Hydra grafted to his flesh. He was talking to Coulson, hung up, and suddenly Natasha was dragging him out of the Tower to go on some idiotic shopping trip- a thin excuse to just get him out and take his mind off of things. He'd tried to wrench free from her grip, but couldn't. _Bucky and I are the only super-soldiers, right?_ he remembered being suddenly unsure of that. The thought sent chills down his spine. In a way, he knew the answer before JARVIS even spoke.

"There has been no tampering that I may detect. This is the original film strip. Both the film itself and tape reconnecting several different scenes is consistent with the date indicated on the label."

Natasha couldn't accept that, "It's not real. I know it's not. I was trained in the Red Room in the 80s, I worked for the KGB for twenty- no wait-"

"We met on-mission in the late 90s," Clint prompted softly.

"Well I know I worked for the KGB for twenty years, at least, before that, and I trained for at least ten-"

"The math doesn't line up. You'd be in your 40s, 50s at least." Bucky looked down at his hands.

"No, but-" Natasha ran through her memories quickly, trying to find the point of error. She must have miss-counted time at some point, doubled something. It had been a long day, she was frazzled, she'd made a mistake. The video wasn't possible. It just wasn't.

"JARVIS, you have Nat's DNA on file?" Tony wouldn't look her in the eyes either.

"Yes, sir."

"Compare it to Bucky and Steve's. Specifically the super-soldier anomalies."

No one spoke for the full twenty minutes it took JARVIS to run his tests, then re-run them when the Avengers rejected the results. "With a 0.00001% error probability, Miss Romanoff's DNA _does_ include the same genetic abnormalities as Mister Barnes, yet lacks the same mutations as Mister Rogers. It would appear at some point she was subjected to the unfinished version of the super soldier serum. Potentially an earlier form of that used on Mister Barnes."

Banner chose to be the voice of reason, impossible as all this seemed, "For Red Skull to know the serum worked and test it on himself, he had to have seen it in action. Natasha, I'm sorry, but considering the number they did on Bucky, is it possible they did the same thing to you too? Once upon a time?"

"No, no, it's not- it's not possible. JARVIS, play back the reel, the last cut."

The suit turned to face the wall and projected the newly-scanned footage from it's internal memory. The last clip came up- Natasha, dancing. The Red Room, as a cover, doubled as a dance studio. Every Black Widow agent was part of the same ballet class- grace and death, all they'd been taught. She had hoped the last clip would show that place. She studied the dancers faces as closely as she could given the age of the footage. She remembered all of them- most died before their training was complete. Duels to the death were a weekly occurrence, and Natasha was top of her class. She was perhaps twelve in this clip. She remembered that day, that dance. Every detail was perfect- but it couldn't have been that long ago. She tried to remember exactly how long she'd been with the KGB, the time seemed much longer than it could have, yes, but- she _wasn't_ that old.

"If it was real, I'd remember. No matter what they did. I've been around Thor's healing stones just like the rest of you. Bucky remembers, despite Hydra's best efforts. If it actually happened, I would too."

"Not if you suppressed the memories yourself," Thor's voice was soft.

"This is a shitty prank, you should all be ashamed of yourselves!" Natasha stormed off up the stairs, leaving everyone in silence.

Clint waited until he heard the bedroom door slam, "Let's call it a night- yeah?"

"I'll try to find what I can," Tony promised as the group disbursed. The cheery mood was gone.

Even Inessa was too shaken to hold on to her rage- when Sam held her bedroom door open for her she actually thanked him- it was a whisper, but it was something.

Over the next few hours there were several shouts and a "NOT COOL!" from Clint as the Avengers found the other eight tazer darts Inessa had hidden in their beds. She was just grateful no one knew _she'd_ been the one to plant them.

* * *

Side note, Mystery solved (don't tell Thor)- Christine essentially thought the Phantom and the Angel of Music were two sides of one coin- think multiple personality disorder. She wasn't the brightest cookie in the crayon box.


	18. Chapter 16: The Shrink

**Chapter 16: Clint's Farm - Front Yard**

"Until Natasha is... until she's feeling better, I'll train you," Steve gestured to the sandbag he'd tied to a thick branch on the oak tree, "I don't know how Nat trained, but this is what I've always used. You punch with an open fist, like this," he demonstrated, "never a closed one. You'll just damage your own hand that way. Keep your hands up, arms straight, and feet planted firmly." Inessa adjusted her stance accordingly, "Now, before we start, you'll have to learn to wrap your hand."

Steve pulled a long strip of cloth out of his bag and held it up so Inessa could see. This was the part he was worried about, especially without Mallory there to ground her. "It's to protect you from getting hurt, alright?" she eyed the cloth wearily, then nodded. The anger wasn't as strong anymore, and she was afraid. Her last incident- brought on by Bucky's arrival, she had been _so_ convinced she was still in Astana. It didn't make sense to her, but she was afraid of that fear again. She'd been bound before- by Dennisson's guards. Steve could see exactly how this was affecting her, "Deep breaths, alright?"

"Three times around the wrist," he spoke softly and kept his movements slow. Inessa's eyes kept shooting all around, reminding herself of where she was, "spread out your fingers, good, three times here," she was holding her breath, trying not to shake. Steve glanced up, "Stay with me, alright?"

Dennisson's men- some of them- liked it when she fought back, but they'd wrap her hands, bending her fingers down and securing them with the cloth strips so she couldn't open her hands and every hit dug her fingernails into her own palms. This felt too similar. Inessa tried to summon up some of that anger to clear her mind, but she was having trouble focusing on both that and keeping herself grounded in the present. Someone touched her shoulder and she looked up. Banner took her other hand and held it.

"Almost done," Steve wound the cloth around the back of her hand and thumb, "between the fingers," her hand was tense, the fingers locked in place straight out. Steve moved them to the side and secured the wrap, "this part is going to be tighter," he picked up the pace and attached the wrap around her lower forearm.

"All done," Banner released Inessa's hand and she let out the breath she was holding. Steve gave her a moment before quickly covering the other hand. With one done, the other wasn't as frightening. Steve showed her one more time how to stand, then let her loose upon the sandbag. It released the rest of the tension in Inessa. She still pictured the guards, but now they were the sandbag- trussed up for her to take a crack at for a change.

Steve left Inessa swinging and pulled Banner out of earshot- not that she was paying attention, "How's Natasha?"

"That's a Clint question, I have no idea. She's locked herself in the den. Tony says she's having JARVIS run just about every scan or test he knows. She's trying to figure out what the hell is going on. She doesn't believe this isn't a prank."

He sighed, "It's not, right? For sure? This isn't Stark trying to pull a fast one?"

"Honestly no, I don't believe it's a joke. If Stark found Nat's childhood photos, he wouldn't put together something this elaborate, he'd just blow them up poster-sized and wallpaper the farm or something."

"First something spins around our heads and makes us go nuts, now we get a mystery delivery with an impossible tape. Someone is making a play. It won't be long before we're at war again." Steve glanced around at the serene farm, took in the quiet and the stillness, "At least here there won't be so many civilian casualties. New York is probably glad we're not there."

Banner fidgeted, "On that note..."

"What?"

He sighed, "SHIELD has the name of a woman who might be able to help Inessa. She has experience with _gifted_ patients, and she's willing to work with her via webcam on one condition."

Steve glanced back at Inessa, "Why do I get the feeling I won't like this?"

"You won't," Banner promised, "She'll only agree to treating her remotely if she can meet her face-to-face first."

"She wants us back in New York?" Steve rolled his eyes, "Great."

"Not just her. I told you you won't like this- Agent Skye, in contacting her, mentioned Bucky, and how he fits into Inessa's trauma. In light of that, she wants to see him too, get a clear picture of how they interact and what sort of condition Bucky's in as well."

"That's actually not a bad idea," Steve mused. "Everything he's been through- Bucky isn't right. Hasn't been for a long time. Maybe he should be seeing the lady too."

"Wow, I did _not_ think you'd take that so well," Banner expected something resembling a Hulk-out from Steve on the issue.

He nodded, "The more I think about it, the more I like it. We can stay at Avengers Tower, train when she's not with the doctor, and Bucky's in a more contained location." All in all, Steve was feeling pretty good about the whole thing. It was a weight off his shoulders. "Who's coming and who's staying?"

"I'll take a poll, you'll know by lunch."

"Thanks," Steve patted Banner on the shoulder and returned to supervising Inessa's training.

* * *

**Avenger's Tower**

"Home sweet home," Sam stepped out of his Suit onto the balcony of Avengers Tower, followed by Steve, Bucky, and Inessa. Tony wanted to come as well- but he was needed back at the farm to keep an eye on the defenses and help Natasha in her quest.

"Nessie, you've got a room on the guest floor now. The one with the wolf on the door," Tony had chosen her logo _before_ they'd stripped away her powers- now it just seemed like they were mocking her.

"Welcome home sirs, lady," JARVIS sounded as soon as Sam opened the balcony door, "I have notified Master Stark of your safe arrival."

"I'm sure he's been on the edge of his seat for the last half hour," Steve mumbled.

"Indeed, sir. Miss Inessa- Master Stark wishes for you to know that his laboratory here is at your full disposal. However, he asked that I caution you against any projects which may interfere with or in some way damage your implant. He will continue to monitor it closely via the house reader."

Inessa expected nothing less. She walked away from the rest of the group up to find the guest quarters. The group disbursed without idle chatter- Bucky to the training room, Steve to the library, and Sam- well, Sam came back with the troop to keep an eye on everyone. Inessa and Bucky may both be flight risks here, and Steve would need all the help he could get corralling them. Thor, Banner, and Tony were needed on the farm in case whoever sent the reel made some sort of attempt on Natasha. Someone needed to keep an eye on the three in Avengers Tower.

"A pissed off teenager, a master assassin, and a stubborn old soldier. Just like Thanksgiving at Nana's house."

* * *

"Hello Nadya, my name is Madelyn Pryor. How do you do?" the woman smiled kindly.

"I-Inessa," talking to a stranger was already proving too much- she didn't know this woman, didn't trust her, and when she tried to speak, it was as if someone glued her teeth together and filled her mouth with sand.

"No. Now I'm sorry, but the file SHIELD sent to me says 'Nadya', that is who you are and that is what I've been asked to help you remember." the doctor was stern, but that's what SHIELD paid for, and what she felt this particular case would require.

Inessa took a few deep breaths like Banner had taught her- a way to relax. She was able to speak only a little clearer, "Nadya... is gone. Not here."

"I don't accept that, I think Nadya is right here. Locked away perhaps, hidden behind something, but here all the same. Can you tell me why you think she is gone? What happened to Nadya Ryker?" After the third try Inessa gave up trying to get the words out. She just shook her head. "Your friends said you have been using sign language to communicate. You may use it here if you'd like. I can understand."

_Nadya Ryker is dead._

"And she left Inessa to pay her tab?" Inessa frowned, confused. "When did Nadya die?" Doctor Pryor was a patient woman.

_Five years ago._

"Not when the Avengers took her body back from Hydra? Or when she found her way back inside?"

_Maybe. I don't know._

"So," the doctor sighed and leaned back in her chair, "Nadya Ryker died, and how did Inessa come to be here?"

_They gave me my name-_

"-the Avengers?" Inessa nodded, "So, Nadya dies, and the _Avengers_ create Inessa?"

_No-_

"From what I've read, that seems to be the case. Inessa is something for the Avengers to craft, to mold. Nadya Ryker- now she made decisions, like any child. She decided what books to read, what people to speak to, how and when to use her abilities," Doctor Pryor leaned to the side and looked pointedly at the edge of one of the implant's prongs peeking around her neck.

_No, it's not like-_

"Who gave her the name Inessa?" Doctor Pryor purposefully referred to 'Inessa' as if she were separate from the girl sitting in front of her- a way to divide the two in the child's mind as well.

_The Avengers._

"Who taught her to speak?" she held up her hands to clarify what she meant.

_The Avengers._

"Who decides how she spends her days?"

Structure had been a big part of how Natasha and Clint intended to help cure Inessa's mind. Routine was the key to their treatment. _The Avengers_.

"Who decides how _their_ Inessa uses her powers?"

 _The Avengers_. Inessa was beginning to see her point.

"Who attached a remote control to Nadya when she showed initiative all her own?"

 _The Avengers_.

Doctor Pryor smiled, "Hydra tried to turn Nadya Ryker into their creature. The Avengers, it sounds like, built their own person while Nadya was away. Shall we work together to flush out the intruder?"

_Yes._

"Then let's begin _."_ _Damn but I'm good,_ she thought as she smiled, _Sebastian Morris isn't paying me enough._

A different sentiment was crossing Inessa's mind- _Whatever Hydra is paying you to push this bullshit, it's too much_.

* * *

 


	19. Chapter 17: Friends?

**Chapter 17: Hydra Facility Astana - Kazakhstan**

Unable to move, Inessa watched the man with the metal arm struggle as they dragged him into the room. "Put him over there," Dennisson's voice sent shivers down her spine. A chair was wheeled in behind him, and the technicians operating it rolled it around to the indicated corner. Bucky was dumped into the chair, shackled, and a strong magnet activated- he was pinned down by his metal arm. If all other restraints failed, that one would keep him in place.

Dennisson walked over to the corner where shackles hung from the ceiling. He stood on tip-toes and closed one around his hand. The guards who had strong-armed Bucky into the room came over to help him bind his other wrist.

Once Dennisson was chained and the electric panels had been secured around Bucky's face the technicians left under the escort of the guards.

Inessa felt her muscles unlock and she casually picked up the remote from the table- the one that would wipe Bucky, turn him back into the Winter Soldier. She twirled it between her fingers and eyed the two. "Make your case, gentlemen," Doctor Pryor put a hand on Inessa's shoulder, but was she comforting the girl, or holding her in place?

"What did I ever do but flap my lips?" Dennisson's voice was unnaturally calm and collected, a caricature of the dead man. "I just told him to turn you- how many other ways could it have been done? We could have simply invited you to join, used our rhetoric to seduce you. But we didn't. We dragged you off the street, then _he_ tortured you. What my guards did- was I ever present during those occasions? You've always assumed it was me who gave them permission, but was it really? I never wanted you to be a part of Hydra, we both know that. They wouldn't look away, I knew if I didn't take control, someone else would. Then what? They'd never risk burning you out the way they did Bucky, you could lose your abilities. But they have other ways- ways you can't say no to. I didn't do anything. I tried to help you die, when you couldn't even gain purchase in this world, I tried to help you die. I ordered you brought for termination, _they_ stopped me from saving you from all that pain."

It didn't matter that most of it was a lie, that more often than not it was Dennisson's hand on Bucky's, forcing him to harm the girl as the Winter Soldier's control faded. Reason crept in, but Dennisson's reality was laid over hers and nearly obscured the truth. It was like a film Inessa could see through- but if she lost concentration for a moment it became opaque.

"And you?" Doctor Pryor gently turned Inessa. The panels were already covering most of Bucky's face, but the power hadn't been activated yet. Still, he was terrified, "What is your defense?"

"I- I didn't know what I was doing-"

"-you didn't?" Doctor Pryor turned Inessa to face the opposite end of the room. The wall dissolved, and it was like watching a movie. Inessa was in the same chains that bound Dennisson now, hanging unprotected. The usual thin gray cloth pants Hydra had forced all prisoners to wear were only knee-length. Bucky was sitting on a stool, holding one of her legs just under the knee. With his other hand, he carefully and meticulously flayed the skin away from the muscle. There didn't need to be any sound with the video- Inessa remembered. Just like she remembered the fact that they'd muzzled her so her screams didn't disturb Bucky and Dennisson had that damned hand on the back of Bucky's head, forcing him to  _only_ see what was directly in front of him- not the kid attached to it, "You look _very_ sure of your actions."

"I didn't know what I was doing," Bucky closed his eyes and whispered, "I didn't know what I was doing."

"Choose, Inessa," Doctor Pryor spun her back towards the two men, "one you free. One you don't. Free the man who did less harm- and destroy the one who tried to control you. Dennisson gave the order to turn you, the Winter Soldier decided how that should be done. Neither can be called 'innocent' in any of this, but who had the better intentions?"

Inessa considered Doctor Pryor's words carefully. She knew who she had to pick. She flipped the remote once in the air, and hit the button. Bucky began to scream, she smelled cooking flesh as the electricity burned through his skull.

Doctor Pryor smiled, "Good girl."

* * *

**Avengers Tower**

Inessa sat up with a gasp. She was cold, but sweat covered her entire body. She couldn't stop shaking- and the smell of charred flesh was one she couldn't get out of her head. There was a rapid throbbing in her head- just like the headaches she always left Pryor's office with.

It wasn't even two in the morning, and Inessa knew she wouldn't be able to sleep for the rest of the night. Again. Ever since she started with that _woman_ she hadn't slept more than four hours in a row. Her dreams always followed the same pattern- confronted with any one of a dozen different scenarios, she always killed an Avenger. Pryor meant to turn her against her friends- Inessa just wished she knew how the doctor was getting into her head, and how to stop it. She was always tired now, either the dreams were some sort of vision- not actually sleep- or it was simply the strain of fighting against Pryor's manipulations _and_ her own mental problems that the doctor was most certainly _not_ helping with.

Steve and the others knew nothing about it, of course. It would be a distraction they'd all leap on, but they couldn't. A SHIELD consultant with a hidden agenda? They'd probably find some way to convince themselves it had nothing to do with Natasha's mystery video- or Berny Barton, who the others knew nothing about. Did Bucky know what Pryor was doing? He'd only visited the doctor twice before she told Steve she wouldn't need to see him again. What sort of seeds had she planted in his head? Had he let her?

One thing was certain- the treatment _was_ helping Inessa, just not in the way they all thought. The doctor was playing at something, and while she still didn't have the whole picture, she was still happy to play along and gather pieces to fit into the puzzle. Having a mission of her own gave her something other than the past to focus on... _Getting some real sleep wouldn't be unappreciated though_.

* * *

The Tower was Inessa's haunt during these sleepless nights. She'd found nearly all of Clint's handholds in the lower rooms- half-empty shelves, reinforced picture frames, conveniently placed air vents- Tony left a veritable jungle gym in the lobby. It took some trial and error, but Inessa managed to follow the path left up into the rafters.

_Natasha dropped from the rafters, landing lightly on the floor. The Shadow was curious about these humans who broke it's link with the Winter Soldier. It lept upward as Clint followed Nat down, nearly touched him. He felt it move past him, his sense of it stronger than ever. As he fell, he spun, tipped upward to watch the darkness. She peered from it, allowed him to see her, if only to determine what these creatures would respond with. He was terrified of the inhuman face that stared back at him. The Shadow pulled back from sight, hid itself just barely inside their world._

Inessa hadn't remembered that day in a long time- though in all fairness she hadn't exactly looked for the memory either. Clint, for all his gifts, was the most human of the lot. She'd had a sense he might be a friend. No matter what Pryor tried to pour into her mind, Inessa remembered that. The Avengers were not people she'd trusted blindly- not until she looked into their minds. The implant on her neck was something _she'd_ sought- she just didn't think they'd use it against her.

 _If one of them offered though, would I have it removed?_ She was torn- on the one hand, fuck yes, other the other hand, she understood precisely why they'd tricked her. It wasn't "Putting a leash on the dog", as Doctor Pryor wanted her to believe, it was grounding the teenager.

 _How many people are being tortured right now, all because I let Mallory see me?_ Guilt and shame now. Whenever she tried to understand the others' minds, this happened- she was reminded keenly of her mission to protect Hydra's other prisoners. Pryor was something- but what? Psychic? Mind reader? Could she send dreams or whisper into your subconscious? She didn't know Inessa was far from her control- at least in that she'd never turn on the Avengers. Still, between the dreams and the small push on her mind, Inessa was frustrated. Being up in the rafters brought back flashes of memory- memories much more pleasant than the ones she'd been trying to forget. Memories of being something untouchable, feared even. Most of the five years she spent as the Shadow were spent in isolation in the Valley with the very rare foray into the world to stalk the halls of Astana. Her body had been in a well-lit cryo tube, unreachable while her powers were fading. Those last weeks- months?- where she'd stalked the Avengers was the closest she had to memory during that entire experience. It was something to hold on to.

Inessa dropped from the rafters and went to stand before the door without even realizing her intent. She just stood there, staring at it. _I miss being outside,_ the balcony was nice, but it wasn't enough. She grew up in a concrete jungle too, but since she'd seen Clint's farm, being trapped indoors so much made her miss even the rare city park- enough to brave being around all the people. She didn't have the courage to leave though. Maybe.

Bucky watched from he shadows of the stairwell as she hesitated. He couldn't sleep- not since he'd woken from a dream of her killing him with the electroshock machine. She stood in front of the door for at least fifteen minutes, then finally grabbed the handle and tried it- unlocked. Inessa was always free to leave, she just never had the courage to try, at least not before tonight. As soon as the door closed behind her, JARVIS' voice chimed softly in the stairwell, "Deploying remote Suit to guard Miss Inessa."

"Don't bother," Bucky stood up and descended the rest of the way, "it'll attract every curious eye in the city. I'll protect her."

"Yes, Mister Barnes. Have a safe walk." JARVIS' protocols said that Bucky could only leave the Tower under the escort of another resident. Tony had been in a bit of a rush when he updated the protocols- he'd also listed _Inessa_ as a resident. Steve wasn't going to be happy when he found out, but that was a problem for another day.

Bucky double checked to make sure his long-sleeve shirt covered his metal arm at the shoulder plate, slipped on a pair of shoes, grabbed another, and quickly departed.

* * *

Inessa was standing at the edge of the private entrance to Avengers Tower, just inside the threshold. She heard Bucky walking down the steps and tried to force herself through the doorway, but again, an invisible barrier stopped this act of defiance. If she got out before he hit the third floor, she had a chance of vanishing- not much of one, but she was optimistic. All she knew was that she didn't want to go back up there until she'd had a taste of freedom. She took the stairs to give herself time to be _sure_ of her decision- 115 stories worth of time. She thought she was ready, so why couldn't she go through the door?

"You won't get far without these," Bucky reached around and dropped the shoes in front of her, "put them on quickly, we've only got a few hours to explore before you've got to be back to get ready for your appointment with Pryor."

She looked down at the shoes for a while before slipping them on. The invisible barrier was gone, now that she had someone with her- someone both familiar and alien. A friend and an enemy. "Thank you," she had a passable whisper now, clear and easy enough to understand.

"I grew up in this city, it hasn't changed much in seventy years," Bucky let her lead the way into the Tower parking lot and pointed to the barbed gate that separated them from the streets. Inessa went to open it, "Anything in particular you wanted to see?"

"I just need to walk." she stuck her head through a crack in the gate and eyed the sidewalk. There were a couple dozen fangirls dressed as different Avengers sleeping against the wall. Steve had explained when they mobbed the car on the way to Inessa's first appointment with Pryor- whenever the lights of Avengers Tower came on and anyone got word an actual Avenger was there, the fans appeared. There were always a handful, but their numbers multiplied the more floors that were lit. No one knew who was on which level, so everyone's fans turned out. _Especially_ since the Second Battle of New York revealed not just the Falcon, but _another_ new Avenger ( _two_ others, if the grainy cell phone footage of the dark creature standing with Cap in the ruins of the senate house was legit).

A couple of the girls jumped to their feet, excited, but Bucky just held up his (right) hand, "Night janitors, sorry girls."

"Wait, so you, like, _clean_ for the Avengers? How cool is that?!" one was way too excited.

"Nope, Mister Stark likes the stairs kept clean, in case anyone needs them. Sweep and mop, every week. Orders come from the computer-ie dude." He figured from the looks of them no one had been outside the Tower long enough to know that was bullshit. 

The girl rolled her eyes, "You mean JARVIS? That's only Tony Stark's _best friend_. You should be more respectful."

"I'll keep that in mind, ma'am," Bucky was speaking with Clint's slightly country accent, he was just glad the girls were buying it.

"What's up with her?" one of them (dressed in a flannel Iron Man suit) pointed at Inessa who was staring at the ground, "Why's she in pajama pants?"

"Cleaning pants, jeans get uncomfortable when you're working on stairs," Bucky waved and pushed Inessa through the crowd, "have a nice night, Ladies." There were a few mumbles behind them, but no one stopped the pair. Both of their faces had been on television newscasts about the Hydra invasion- luckily Bucky's was mostly covered by loose hair and blood in every shot and Inessa had wrapped herself in so many shadows no one would possibly recognize her. Otherwise leaving would have been tricky. "I should have been an actor," Bucky sighed as they crossed the street. He took his hand off Inessa's shoulder and stepped back, "Your choice- I can stay right by you, or I can hold back a ways and you can walk alone."

Inessa waved him over- her courage was broken by the two curious girls who suddenly blocked their way at the gate, "You're... a friend." The Hollow Man seemed to be gone for now, and only Bucky's genuine kindness and desire to help lit his eyes. If he was like this all the time, they really would be friends. She'd always had a soft spot in her heart for the nice man who was also a prisoner of Hydra, who was also tortured and scarred by those monsters. Something in the Second Battle of New York woke up the Hollow Man- that creature of cold fury Bucky turned into. So long as he was kept back, Inessa knew she was safe.

Doctor Pryor was the only one who knew she'd made the distinction between Bucky's two sides, or that she was sensitive enough to them that she could tell _before_ he snapped what he might do. If Bucky knew, maybe it would lift his spirits and help him keep control... Inessa did her best to flash a quick smile and was rewarded by a relieved grin from her companion. The Hollow Man would not be making an appearance any time soon.

"You set the pace and direction, I'll just follow along." In a way it reminded him of when he was back in high school and his mother would make him escort one of his sisters to some function or another. The familiarity was calming after that too-vivid dream. Inessa chose a street that would lead them south and began to walk.

Three Hydra agents followed.

* * *

"I'm impressed," Morris smiled at Doctor Pryor, "you are worth every penny."

"My parents raised me to always exceed expectations. It's lucky she ever left at all. I didn't think my little nudges were working." They sat in her office, watching security footage from a store across from the Tower.

"Let us see just how much of that luck is in the cards tonight," he opened his phone and dialed one of the humans he had lying in wait- a girl dressed in Iron Man pajamas, "follow them until they angle back towards the Tower, then take them down."

"Yes, sir," she flashed a thumbs-up at the security camera, signaled two young men in the group pretending to sleep, and went after Bucky and Inessa.

"What are you hoping to achieve with this?" Pryor was interested.

"I'm just waking up an old asset. _And_ \- "Morris indicated the three as they passed out of frame, "I'm planning on none of them surviving the night."

* * *


	20. Chapter 18: Shots Fired

**Chapter 18: New York City**

Perhaps he'd been too busy since he remembered the kind of man he was before Hydra- the kind he still wanted to be.

Perhaps he was just afraid of how much his city had changed in seventy years.

Whichever it was, one thing was certain- he should have taken a walk like this _months_ ago. Bucky's head was on a swivel as he followed Inessa through the streets of New York. Everything was different, but somehow it seemed familiar. Yes, skyscrapers and buildings were taller than what he'd seen as a child and now took up blocks where there had once been only four story apartments, but they were still the same blocks, the same alleys, even the people weren't much changed. Every now and then he even saw a familiar structure, barely changed by the decades. Bucky and Inessa walked through the streets beyond even the ruins of the senate house, where cleanup crews were still trying to remove large blocks of marble under massive floodlights. For hours they just walked, ducking down side streets to avoid any large crowds of people until, without intending to, they wandered through Battery Park, where Sam and Natasha had fought off two of Dennisson's agents.

Bucky was drawn across the street to a small overlook, and Inessa followed. He leaned on the fence and stared at the city across the Hudson, "That's Brooklyn," he told her, "that's where Steve and I grew up."

"Do you have family?"

He shook his head, "I asked JARVIS once, but I chickened out before he told me. Honestly, if my sisters are still alive I don't think I'd want them to see me. Their brother died a war hero seventy years ago. A good death for a good man. That's not worth ruining with the truth."

"Sorry," Inessa didn't know what else to say.

"Can you keep a secret?" she nodded, "I thought what you were doing was right- going after Hydra. They see you as this kid who needs to be protected, a child," Bucky shook his head and glanced over at her, "but we both know you stopped being that after the first _week_ in Astana. Steve took out half a dozen Hydra bases at least before he found me, I don't see why you can't do the same."

"Really?"

Bucky nodded, "He doesn't understand. What they did to us, what I did to you- it burns away pieces of your soul, and it's hard as hell to heal that. Hurting Hydra back helps."

Inessa agreed. She still felt like she wasn't _allowed_ to speak much to Bucky, but she ventured from her comfort zone quite a bit already, what was a little more? "When I'm that... that thing, I only remember a little, I only have to take the memories I want with me. I don't feel pain, I don't feel scared- I feel alive. There is only the anger, and I can control that. I can make Hydra the ones who are scared." It took several minutes for her to get the words out, there were many stops and pauses Bucky had to wait patiently through, but it was by far the most she'd ever spoken, and every word was true. It was something she knew she could only say to Bucky, he was the only one who would understand without trying to correct her. She couldn't change how she felt, he wouldn't make her.

"You're right," he said at last, "you're exactly right. Hydra took from us to make themselves stronger- why can't we use their blood to take back some of that?"

"We can't," she looked down. They were both grounded in different ways- her by the implant, him by... ... ... by what?

"Look, the moment's cute and all," Inessa and Bucky turned towards the girl's voice, "but it's almost dawn and I'm _really_ sick of tailing you two ass-hats." The girl in the Iron Man pajamas- one of the two who stopped them outside of Avengers Tower- was standing near the trees and was flanked by two Thors.

"You don't want to fight us," Bucky warned, stepping in front of Inessa.

The girl laughed, "We've been paid enough that _, yeah_ , we really do."

"Full disclosure," Bucky had no weapons on him- not that the metal arm wouldn't be enough- but he cursed himself for being so unprepared, "we're Avengers. _Whatever_ you were paid, three against even just one of us wouldn't be enough. You're what, eighteen? Don't do this, it doesn't end well."

She just smiled, "Full disclosure- we already know. Our boss made sure we were _very_ well prepared." The Thors drew guns. Now Bucky was really pissed at himself. These kids were smart- he judged the distance between them and himself, they could get off three rounds each before he reached them, and their aim looked to be pretty damn good.

Bucky glanced back at Inessa, "I can't stop them and prote-"

The Thor's opened fire.

Bucky took three to the abdomen- damn kids. Usually his enemies waited for _him_ to make the first move. He grabbed Inessa and jumped over the fence. Together they tumbled down the grassy slope to water's edge. They couldn't get away- he was in too much pain to swim and she couldn't carry him long enough or fast enough to get away. He wasn't fleeing- he was buying time. "JARVIS, send five medical suits and three vials of anti-venom to our position NOW." Bucky panted. Inessa tried to roll off of him, but he pinned her against his chest. Bright flashes of light muddled his vision as pain lanced out from the wounds. They were bad, but wouldn't kill him before JARVIS had him back at the Tower. He didn't hear the A.I's reply when it came. "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry," Bucky locked eyes with Inessa. He had his arms wrapped around her still from the tumble down the hill. She knew what he was thinking and quickly pulled her hair to the side. Bucky moved his human one to the back of her head and pulled it down against his chest as hard as he could. Bucky hesitated, "Do it." Inessa's voice was trembling, but she sounded sure. He grabbed the implant in his metal hand and ripped it out- absorbing the shocks as the device tried to defend itself.

Inessa's scream was deafening. Skin and tissue pulled away with the implant and blood began pouring from the wound instantly. Bucky put his human hand against it and tried to keep pressure, but the motion only caused her further pain. The girl in the Iron Man pajamas and her Thors jumped over the rail and took aim. Inessa became instantly silent. Bucky squeezed slightly- he didn't think she'd bleed this much this quickly, he just prayed it was the right decision. When the movement didn't trigger more cries of pain, he lifted her head slightly so he could look into her eyes. They were dead- glassy.

He looked up at the would-be assassins in time to see a horrific creature- not quite human, not quite wolf- descend upon them. The Thors opened fire again, but their bullets passed through the shadow-beast. They were flung aside with a spray of blood as their chests were laid open by the beast's claws. The girl tried to run, but the wolf dove at her and raked her across the back. She tumbled down the hill and landed half in the water, stunned and gasping for air.

Bucky stared at the Shadow, standing on the top of the hill. It stared at the girl as if it was ready for the killing blow. "Inessa, Nadya, don't," Bucky called as best he could- he suspected a bullet nicked a lung because he was starting to have trouble breathing. A disturbing amount of blood was coming from both his stomach and Inessa's neck. _How deep did those wires run?_

The Shadow stared at the girl a moment more, snarling. In the distance Bucky could see the glow of Tony's suits, coming in for the rescue. The Shadow howled and ran instead for its wounded ally. Bucky felt it land next to him, then everything went black as it folded itself around them.

* * *

Bucky was blinded by the lights of the operating room. They ran on motion sensors and snapped on at maximum brightness, immediately dissolving the Shadow around him and Inessa. The setting was left over from _before_ , when they thought the Shadow was something to be fought, "Lights down!" he was still holding Inessa's body and the implant. Bucky's muscles were locked, he wasn't sure he could move if he wanted to.

The lights dimmed and the Shadow reappeared in a dark corner, watching intently. A single medical Suit ran into the room and quickly scanned both, "I can wait," Bucky insisted, "get her first."

"Perforated lung and spleen, multiple lacerations to the large and small intestine and a shattered rib," JARVIS' voice rattled off Bucky's injuries. "Miss Inessa is more able to await treatment," he couldn't argue, it was _very_ difficult to get enough air, but he wasn't happy. A second medical Suit entered and pulled Inessa from Bucky's grip (with some difficulty). It wrapped a white towel around her throat and closed around her. The other suit lifted Bucky onto the OR table. As he was sedated, Bucky began to plan how he was going to explain all of this to the others...

* * *

The implant being removed so violently set off alarms throughout all Avengers embedded comms- though it took a lot of shouting over one another to finally get a diagnosis of what the alarm _meant_. Steve was ready to kill someone by the time JARVIS reported Bucky and Inessa were both in the medical section of the Tower. A few minutes later there was a second report of three teenagers in Battery Park who had been attacked by the Shadow. JARVIS put the scans all together to paint a picture of what had happened within ten minutes, but that was an incredibly tense time.

Steve ran down the stairs to the recovery room to check on Inessa and saw the Shadow lurking along the far side of the room. He skid to a stop, his skin crawling at the hideous, half-formed creature. _Ally, not enemy_ , he turned to the suit on the bed, "Let me see her,". The face and chest plates folded back. She was pale, covered in mud and dirt, her dull eyes told him she was out-of-body, but he'd guessed that already, "what happened?"

"Mister Barnes removed Miss Inessa's implant," JARVIS broadcast his reply throughout the comms. "Analysis of the scene indicates they came under attack, Mister Barnes was fired upon. After this he removed the device and Miss Inessa used her abilities to _incapacitate_ their attackers."

"Give her morphine," Steve ordered, "something for the pain," he was looking from the vacant-eyed girl on the bed to the Shadow lurking in the corner. There was a hissing noise as the suit complied. Sam came in behind him as he waited.

"JARVIS, call the police as well. Have them meet the Suits and the kids at the nearest hospital." Sam gave the order.

"I want a full background on those little bastards," Tony's voice was tinny, metallic- he was already jumping into his Suit to fly back to New York.

Clint came on next, "How are they? Bucky and Inessa I mean."

"Mister Barnes is undergoing surgery. Once his condition is stabilized Miss Inessa will require a brief procedure to repair damage done by the removal of the device, though she will have to keep her neck immobile throughout the healing process."

"I'm bringing the Asgardian stone," Tony confirmed. It would cut healing time down from weeks to days.

The Shadow abruptly came forward to stand by Inessa's body. Steve and Sam waited as it carefully touched a massive claw to her cheek. The Shadow poured into the body, diminishing and morphing until it was a large, black wolf. Inessa's eyes focused and she blinked. When she tried to move her head to look at Steve she winced and moaned. "I thought the morphine might bring you back."

"It hurt..." Inessa had jumped out of her body as soon as she felt the walls of the Valley fall open, rode the wave of pain. It was an incredible feeling having her abilities back. She had underestimated how much it strained her to be separated from her powers.

"What were you two doing outside the Tower?" Sam asked.

"Couldn't sleep," Inessa mumbled. Her head was swimming with the drugs, pain, and blood loss.

Steve patted her arm, "Anything you can tell us about the kids who attacked you? Were they part of a gang or-"

"Morris. Hydra," Inessa tried to organize her thoughts, "They were hired, armed."

Steve frowned, "How do you know it was this 'Morris' guy?"

"He's a former associate of Dennisson," Natasha cut in quickly, before Inessa accidentally mentioned Berny and the picture of Morris leading him out of his prison, "recently he was caught on security footage helping SHIELD prisoners escape. I showed the footage to Inessa."

"Natasha, I know you're working on tracking down info on the video reel, but can you put your contacts on high alert? We need to know what this guy is planning and where he's based- _now_."

"On it."

"It would appear we are once again at war," Thor sounded a bit _too_ pleased.

* * *

The teens who attacked Bucky and Inessa were loaded into the medical Suits and en-route to the hospital when a series of strange readings appeared on their radars. Five small projectiles fired in rapid succession. They were deemed no-threat by the Suit defenses. Berny watched from a nearby rooftop as the Suits were hit. His arrows stuck to the outside and, once all were engaged, he activated them.

"Just like the fourth of July," Berny almost felt guilty as the Suits exploded. Still, orders were orders and there was no way in  _hell_ he'd risk getting thrown off Morris' team. Instead, he was simply impressed by the new arrows gifted to him by Morris for this mission. He didn't know who was in the Suits, he didn't care. The order was to ensure the other operatives did not reach the hospital.

"One step closer to finally ending your brother's life," Morris' voice came through his ear-bud. Berny smiled, any slivers of guilt forgotten. _Nothing's worth more than getting to that son of a bitch._

* * *

 

**Chapter 19: Doctor Pryor's Office - New York City**

"Now the Avengers know we are coming," Morris stood and straightened out his suit jacket, "I should see to my roster."

Doctor Pryor walked him out to the front lobby, "What would you like me to do?"

"Keep them in the city, if possible, but don't risk your cover. I would like this to be a divided battle. Continue your good work on Inessa. The Ragers have eased their attack on Barnes and Rogers, but they'll be at each others throats soon enough. By the time that happens the girl must be ready to turn on them."

"Easy enough," Doctor Pryor already had her next move all planned out.


	21. Chapter 19: The Serpent

 

* * *

**King Odin's Throne Room - Asgard  
**

Nothing changed in the throne room- no whispers or footsteps, but still Odin suddenly snapped up in his seat as though he'd heard a trumpet blast, "Guards, empty the room, I would have privacy," The Allfather sat upon his great golden throne and surveyed the main hall. He waited until all guards and Asgardian citizens had been removed, then lifted his staff and slammed it down twice, sealing the space in a protective shield that would keep away any curious eyes or ears.

"Thank you for seeing me, King _Odin_ ," Morris emphasized the last word and grinned savagely.

Odin regarded him as he emerged from behind a damaged column as one would a particularly offensive odor, "Does Thanos really believe you are enough to put me down? I'm insulted."

Morris chuckled, "My master is happy to have you right where you are. He sends his congratulations, in fact, and looks forward to the opportunities your new position affords, _King_."

"You are not here only to say that. Speak plainly."

"I've been asked to retrieve a new Avenger for my master's collection- a girl with unusual abilities that may prove useful in future enterprises. Claiming her will mean distracting the others at least, if not outright extermination."

"Easier said than done," Odin sneered.

Morris half-nodded, "Not if you're wise in the planning," the King's expression turned sour, "I'm gathering one enemy per Avenger. They will strike simultaneously- and most Avengers will die, if not all of them. In the confusion of the battle I will personally retrieve Thanos' prize."

"I'll not expose myself to Thor," Odin replied immediately, "the key to my power here is that none know I made it off the Dark World alive."

Morris waved his words away and _tisked_ , "I've been forbidden from even asking. Instead, I want your _uncle_ , and you're the only person in a position to give him to me."

Odin immediately paled, "The Serpent? You know how dangerous he is. Even Thanos never challenged him. He cannot be controlled."

"He's a bit of a loose cannon, yes, but if any of my other recruits fail, he is most likely to clean up the mess. Odin himself could not control his- pardon me- _your_ brother. He barely managed to seal him away as it was, and at such tremendous cost."

"So why risk it? I could recommend any one of a dozen other warriors more than capable of distracting Thor."

"Thanos has given me leave to recruit Cul Borson to my cabal. Will you or won't you comply with my request?"

"Can you guarantee his slaughter will be contained on Midgard?"

Morris nodded, "You have my word. Thanos' guards will close the passages out of that realm. Cul may serve Thanos or rule Midgard in his own right, whatever he chooses- and after the millennia he has spent locked away in Odin's prison, I'm sure it is a deal he will happily accept."

King Odin considered the proposal and every possible ramification- but he knew already what his answer had to be, he couldn't turn down Thanos. At last, he nodded, "Make it look real- no guards, no servants survive. If this goes wrong, Thanos will do worse to you than I could ever conceive." he pulled an amulet from under his breastplate and tossed it to Morris- the key to the secret prison.

"Thank you for your cooperation, King," Morris bowed and quickly left the room. Odin lowered the barriers a few minutes later- just in time to hear the first alarms echo across the land.

 _Little bastard works fast_.

* * *

 


	22. Chapter 20: JARVIS is Your DJ

**Chapter 20: Avengers Tower**

"Entering the arena, the still-undefeated champion of Avengers Tower- Loch Nessa Ryker!" Tony was sitting at Inessa's bedside when she woke around midday. She tried to turn her head to see him, "Nope, you've got to keep still. The back of your neck was torn clean off, remember?"

Inessa tried to reach out with her other senses and see through the shadows of the room- nothing. No Nadya, no Valley. She sighed, frustrated.

"Oh, yeah, sorry about that. Grounding still stands. Until we can safely reattach this," he held up the discarded implant, "JARVIS is your DJ."

"How much trouble-" Inessa's throat was dry, scratchy, and raw. Speaking set off a small coughing fit- which only agitated the oozing scabs on her neck.

Tony winced in sympathy, "Not envying you right now, kiddo. If you were asking how much trouble _we're_ in, we don't know. The med Suits were blown to hell on their way to the hospital with the little assassins still inside. JARVIS is analyzing the data and security camera feeds now and we should have a rough idea soon enough. If, on the other hand, you were wondering how much trouble you and Bucky are in-" he waited to see Inessa's response. She did what she could to nod, "none at all. There were no rules against walks- even though there damn well are now. Pulling the implant was probably the only call that could be made, so yeah- you're both off the hook."

Inessa nodded (sort of) and swallowed several times before trying to speak again, "How is Bucky?"

"Bitchy, brooding, grumpy- nothing new."

"I heard that," Inessa couldn't turn to see him, but Bucky was propped up in the bed on the other side of her from Tony. He'd been awake for an hour or so already.

"Oh, good, your hearing is alright. JARVIS, add that to the med file."

"It was never _not_ alright," sometimes he understood Steve's frustration with Stark.

Tony stood up with a smirk- he liked Bucky. He was almost as fun to needle as Steve, but tended to take it better. On a good day he'd even dish it back. "I've got work to do on this thing," he held up the implant, "and you two are on lockdown in here until JARVIS gives you the all-clear, so hang tight."

"JARVIS, give me the all-clear."

"I cannot do that, Mister Barnes, bed rest is still advised for one in your current condition."

"I'm coming after your hard drive with a magnet," Bucky grumbled.

Something low came over comms, Bucky wasn't entirely sure he'd heard it right, but Inessa's suppressed giggle (and groan from the pain that caused) made him think the A.I. really did just say "If you can get it off your arm,"?

* * *

A knock on the door stalled Steve on his way to the meeting room, "JARVIS, who is it?"

"Doctor Pryor to see you and Miss Inessa," Steve sighed, he didn't have time for this right now.

"Hold on for a few minutes guys, I have to deal with this," he waved off Tony and Sam as they headed in. Before opening the door, Steve plastered on a courteous smile, "Doctor Pryor, how are you?"

She came in quickly, before he even had a chance to turn her away. The doctor seemed agitated, "I saw a news story saying someone destroyed several of Mister Stark's suits and Inessa missed her appointment- naturally I was worried for the well being of my patient."

"I'm going to have to ask you to come back tomorrow, now isn't a good time," Steve blocked her path before she stepped further into their home.

Pryor immediately began to push at Steve's mind with her gifts, "Why isn't it a good time?"

 _There's no harm in telling her,_ he thought suddenly, _she just wants what is best for Inessa, "_ Inessa _was_ injured last night, not critically but she does need her rest. I'd speak with you but I'm on my way into a meeting with the other Avengers to decide how we are going to respond to the attack on those suits as well as the deaths of the teens inside. If you'd please just bear with me, I'm sorry that I forgot to call and tell you she wouldn't make it today."

"Swear to me I will be permitted to see my patient tomorrow? You won't send her out of town? I don't have to tell _you_ how detrimental that would be to her treatment at this time." she nudged at Steve's mind again, making her words lock in place.

"Y-yes," he felt odd, slightly dizzy and dazed, "I promise. Now, please," he stepped around her and grabbed onto the still-open door.

Doctor Pryor checked his mind one last time to make sure her puppet would play his part, then smiled, suddenly friendly again, "Of course, pardon my intrusion. Have a nice day, and I hope nothing is too amiss."

"Thank you for your understanding doctor, you have a nice day as well." Steve closed the door, shook his head to dis-spell the fog, and returned to the meeting room where the four at the farm were already on the screen. He'd intended to send Inessa back as soon as possible, but maybe he was being too hasty. Maybe the city really _was_ the best place for her right now.

* * *

**Sebastian Morris' Base - Location Unknown**

"Tell me Ryker, what would your next move be, if you were them?" Albatross was reclining on a small sofa while the (now much younger) General cut up an apple at the kitchen table nearby.

"They would be fools to _not_ see this as a declaration of war," Ryker remained focused on peeling the skin away from the apple. "They should gather in one place and dangle Nadya out for all their enemies to see. If they were convincing enough, even Morris might buy into the illusion. Then, once we attack, they should scramble their lineup, keep each of us from ever seeing our targets, and hope that is enough to stop us."

"And what is it you believe they _will_ do?" Albatross liked Ryker, he reminded him of his favorite KGB leader from back in the good old days. Competency was so hard to come by.

"They will continue to keep secrets from one another, allow their ranks to become weak, focus on all the wrong problems, and when we do attack, they will die. Disappointingly quickly."

Albatross grinned, "Not my Natasha. I've known her since she was just a wee lass- she'll die, but I bet she puts up a hell of a fight on her way out the door."

"You believe you can beat her this time? You've been in prison for twenty years, she has continued to train and fight all that time."

"Natasha used our friendship to lure me into a trap, this time that will not be possible. Besides, her mind will be so muddled and confused by the time we are unleashed she'll barely be able to muster a defense, let alone an offense."

"Compared to the rest of you my job is easy- lock Banner down before he becomes the Hulk, then let that green bastard rage and test the strength of his prison until he becomes the man again. He'll provide me with plenty of blood to analyze, then Morris will take him as a gift of thanks from me to his master, along with my disappointing granddaughter. Hopefully _he'll_ be able to make something remotely respectable out of her, unlike my idiot son. Sunshine and rainbows all around."

"Ideally," Albatross agreed, "but don't get ahead of yourself. Hubris is as dangerous an enemy as any. Remember _how_ Banner defeated you in the past, and what it cost you. Make sure he isn't in a position to do that again. And we will need to be patient and evaluate the others Mister Morris brings in on this venture- three Avengers are still without enemies, and I do not like the idea of trusting the _brother_ of the Avenger to take part in his assassination."

"Family makes the best enemy sometimes," Ryker for one didn't doubt the hatred Berny had for his elder brother.

"I do hope you are right."

Morris cleared his throat as he entered with a large and very old man- at least seven feet tall, "Gentlemen, allow me to introduce Cul Borson, the Serpent of Asgard." he snapped his fingers and two dozen Hydra agents entered the room and lined up neatly against the far wall, "Will that be enough? I can find more."

The man spoke with a frail, strained voice, "They'll make a good enough start." He held out a grizzled hand towards the soldiers. A black mist poured from him and slipped across the room. Albatross casually lifted his feet to keep the mist from touching him and watched. As it surrounded the Hydra agents they seemed confused- clearly they hadn't been told what kind of assignment this was to be. Ryker was intensely interested as the men began to scream and tried to break ranks. The mist acted like concrete and locked them in place. One by one the light in their eyes faded, their irises became milky and opaque. Some lines appeared on their faces as the skin sagged and hung limp.

Albatross turned from the spectacle to watch Cul Borson himself. All of the Hydra soldiers had withered to the half-alive state, but he was now quite the opposite. His white, thin hair was growing thicker and darker, the hunch in his spine straightened out, and he seemed to glow with an otherworldly youth. His face was quite peaceful, whereas his victims looked dead at best. Walking corpses. "Welcome to our merry band, Mister Borson," he wouldn't stand and risk the mist, but Albatross nodded his head politely to their new teammate.

"Take care how you address me Midgardian," the man's voice boomed, filling the room- a voice meant to be heard over large crowds, "I am a _God_."

"My most sincere apologies, your holiness," Albatross tried his best to mask the sarcasm in his voice. He half-bowed, still refusing to stand from his chair, "I look forward to our partnership moving forward."

"Tell him your line about hubris," Ryker mumbled under his breath. Morris escorted Cul Borson to another room in their little base, leaving him and Albatross with the zombies in the corner. He didn't like the attitude- anyone who declared himself a god was closer to the nut house than Olympus or Asgard or whatever the hell he thought he ruled, but he had to respect the display of power. Suddenly this venture was looking _much_ more promising.

Albatross was eyeing the soldiers in the corner, still vacant and staring, "I hope they don't begin to stink."

* * *

 


	23. Chapter 21: What Morris Built

**Chapter 21: Clint's Farmhouse**

Very softly, and with only a small amount of apprehension, Clint knocked on the study door, "Nat? You mind if I come in?" he glanced to the folder tucked under his arm to be sure no pages were loose.

After a moment the door opened and Natasha leaned out, "What?"

She'd been silent, mostly, the last week or so as she looked high and low for anything to prove or disprove the film reel, but now she looked... normal, or at least closer to it. "Delivery from Fury," he held out the folder.

"You saw him?" she was hopeful.

"No, but," Clint pointed to the red hourglass sketched onto the file, "his calling card, doodles."

Natasha was disappointed. She'd been trying to reach Nick for a week- if anyone knew her past, it would be him. "What is it?" she remembered suddenly the other folder, well hidden, with pictures of Clint's long-dead (more or less) brother Berny.

"No clue, Fury didn't draw a bow and arrow on it, so it's none of my business."

He wanted to help, but she couldn't let him. If he knew Berny was alive and that Natasha had kept that from him for seventeen years? "I'll handle it for now," she could tell he was disappointed as she took the file, "thanks."

"Hey," he stopped her as she edged the door closed, "It doesn't matter how long you did what you did. You've helped more people working for SHIELD than you ever could have hurt. All this changes is the candles on the birthday cake." she nodded and he let go of the door.

Natasha waited for Clint's footsteps to fade away before setting the folder on the desk and opening it. Her caution proved unnecessary. There were a half dozen photographs of the man from the old video in modern dress- definitely taken with the utmost secrecy. Under the photographs the word "ALBATROSS" was typed. No dates, no locations, just the name. Another set of photographs were of a young man with the air of a military commander, someone used to giving orders and having them obeyed, "JOHN RYKER", beneath that "AAM", Artificial Age Modification.

All photographs were clear, but not perfect, taken from great distances as the two men entered or exited vehicles. How had Fury found them? How did he know- Natasha froze for a moment on the last picture of Ryker. Beside him was the man from the pictures of Berny- Dennisson's assistant. Ryker- Banner's first enemy, Berny- Clint's potentially most dangerous and emotionally damaging enemy, and Albatross- Natasha couldn't remember him, but she got the distinct impression they weren't exactly long lost friends.

"Fucking hell Nick," Natasha swept the pictures together and headed for the door- Clint was about to get his wish, "can't even tell me in person we're screwed?"

* * *

Thor, Banner, Clint, and Natasha gathered in the kitchen to discuss the photographs before alerting the New York team. She wanted the input of the others before adding to Steve, Tony, and Sam's already monumental workloads.

"So," Clint inspected the Albatross images slowly, meticulously, "he's alive too," he reached across and grabbed a pen from Banner's shirt pocket (which surprised the scientist to say the least) and noted on the back of one photograph a street sign partially visible in the foreground.

"Ryker's had work done," Banner shot Clint a small glare and returned to the photos in his hands, "him being alive explains how some _less than friendly_ individuals over the years knew so much about the Hulk."

Thor was trying to help Clint identify background features, but he wasn't as much use. He didn't know Midgard well enough to guess what may be relevant, "is the wide and narrow thing on the front of this automobile something unique?"

Natasha took a look, "Partial license plate, no numbers or letters visible, so not really. Color might help narrow it down if we get to a region though. Look at reflections, try to see people in the background. What they are wearing may help."

"So we've got this mystery guy digging up a couple of old opponents or allies or whatever Albatross was, why?" Clint frowned, "And how does it fit with the attempt on Bucky and Inessa- or does it? These could be two totally separate things."

"Mystery guy is Hydra, Dennisson's assistant," Nat had a story planned out already, "Inessa described this guy Morris who she saw when she grabbed Bucky from Dennisson's base. Based on her description I'm 75% sure this is the same guy," 100% actually, but she didn't have a good enough story to cover certainty.

Thor looked over at the man indicated, "Was not Inessa's childhood friend a false ally of Hydra? She may be able to verify his identity, particularly since he was relatively high up in the second battle of New York, she may have seen him."

"Good idea," Clint pulled out his phone and snapped a quick photo of Morris' face. Thor smiled with pride.

"If he's got these two, we have no idea how many he's pulled together or who's giving him directions, if anyone. At least in SHIELD you didn't usually hear about secretaries being in charge of asset recruitment."

Clint's phone buzzed and he quickly checked his inbox, "Alright, it _is_ someone named Sebastian Morris, but these pictures are at least 2 months old. His body was reported destroyed by Hydra just before the fight. Dennisson suspected him of releasing Bucky and smashed in his skull." he nodded approvingly, "Score one for Inessa. You know, on top of how many she's already killed _personally_."

Natasha shook her head, "They must have been duped somehow, Nick wouldn't send me old intel."

"Unless whatever Dennisson had Morris set up is still in play."

"Then why not tell us when these were taken?" she tapped the images impatiently, "Why only share now?"

"We were kind of preoccupied by a homicidal shadow-demon and a Hydra attack."

Thor cut the argument off, "Either way, our task remains unchanged. We must find these men, yes?" Clint and Natasha nodded, "Then we get back to our mission. Let those in New York worry about what happened there. If these issues are connected then their trail can only further enlighten ours."

"This is going to end badly," Banner spoke up.

Natasha glanced at him, "Maybe for once we'll get ahead of this."

Banner nodded and muttered to himself, "And maybe the Hulk will sprout wings like a pretty pretty butterfly."

The growl in his mind from Hulk was almost enough to make him smile.

* * *

**Avenger's Tower- Inessa's Room**

"Hello Nadya, are you feeling better today?"

Inessa glanced over from her bed as Doctor Pryor entered her room. The neck brace was off thanks to the Asgardian stone, but it still was uncomfortable to move too much, "I'm fine."

 Doctor Pryor sat beside her on the bed and whispered quickly, "Do you feel safe here?"

"Why wouldn't I?" Inessa was genuinely curious. She felt Pryor's nudges at her mind, making her skin crawl as if she were genuinely afraid.

"Are they punishing you for asserting your freedom? Are they afraid of you recovering? Is that why they did this to you?"

"You think the attack was planned?" she tried to sound concerned.

Pryor turned to see if anyone was watching from the doorway, then ran quickly to shut it, "You tell me. You tried to leave without their permission and three of their people- their fans- tried to kill you? JARVIS, according to Steve, is an unparalleled security force, he wouldn't know enemies were nearby?" she glanced up at the speaker in the ceiling, suddenly afraid, and hurried back to Inessa's side, "And the suits with the prisoners blown up by one of Hawkeye's arrows?" she shook her head and took Inessa's hands, "I'm prepared to fight for you. If you want to leave, I will help."

 _And there's the angle_ , Inessa considered her response carefully, "Hydra has tried to trick me in the past. If the Avengers did do this, I will find out and I will deal with them, but I can't condemn them just like that. If they truly did though, I will respond in kind." enough to give Pryor hope, not enough to draw suspicion.

"You are such a brave girl," Doctor Pryor patted Inessa's cheek (the teen resisted turning and biting her hand), "I can only hope they don't realize it, or you will be in horrible danger."

The wide-eyed girl had one flaw as a spy, Pryor noted, she wore her emotions on her sleeve for the world to see. It was obvious she was buying into the rhetoric. If Hydra had been less heavy-handed with her and chosen to pay for her services, this would be an entirely different story. Inessa burned with suspicion of the Avengers. It was too easy, she smiled slightly as she hugged the girl.

Inessa could almost hear the voice of Mallory's mother echoing from so long ago, _"Stop playing with your food!"_

 


	24. Chapter 22: Adult Supervision Required

**Chapter 22: Avengers Tower - Guest Floor Kitchen**

"Excitement is the only appropriate response for what I have accomplished, just so you know." Tony announced as he entered the kitchen for supper. "Miss Inessa, your hand, if you would be so kind?"

She eyed him wearily (and by no means was alone in this, Sam and Bucky were equally suspicious) and tentatively held out her left hand. Only a slight tremor betrayed her. Tony held something up for her to see- a bracelet of unusual design. In the center was a flat silver plate, but the rest of it was a gleaming tube covered in small indentations. Tony slipped it on her wrist and pushed it up just past the joint. He looked her in the eye and smiled, "Deep breath."

Inessa realized what was going on a split second before wire-thin needles shot out from the indentations and burrowed into her skin. She tried to pull away from Tony but he tightened his grip, holding her in place. Sam and Bucky watched, horrified. They didn't have time to get around the kitchen counter before it jolted, then snapped around her wrist tightly. Once it was set, Tony released her and Inessa punched him squarely in the jaw.

"What the hell Tony?" Sam grabbed an icepack from the freezer and went quickly to Inessa. He used a cooking band to temporarily pin the ice to her arm, over the cuff.

"That's just the install patch," Tony assured them, unphased, "once it's done, in a few hours, the majority of the unit will fall away. Only a small port- the square bit- will be left to refill the anti-venom reservoir."

Inessa could still feel the wires moving under her skin and up her arm. It was a painful tingling sensation, like having a limb fall asleep. "So now if she's in trouble what happens?" Bucky was furious, "We cut off her whole damn arm?"

"Stark, you have no right installing that without HER permission," Sam put himself between Inessa and Tony.

"What are you two-" he realized suddenly where his plan had gone awry, not enough explanation, "That's just the anti-venom and vitals monitor, not the comm unit!" he held his hands up, "No big honking neck harness, that's all."

Steve wandered in and quickly took stock of the situation, "Stark, what did you do?"

"He plugged Inessa into some experiment without even asking her permission!" Bucky snarled and picked up a steak knife.

 _From Hydra's experiment to the Avenger's, there's no difference_. The thoughts were probably a plant of Pryor, but that didn't make them wrong. "I. Will. Kill. You." Inessa wanted to scream the words, but she was willing to settle for ice cold fury. Bucky had rage already covered, Sam looked about ready to tackle Tony, and Steve was just incredulous.

Their leader shook his head and cleared is throat, "JARVIS, security override A257, take Stark into custody. Lock him down away from computers or electronic devices."

"Now wait one damn second," Tony was confused, "what gives you the right to lock me up in my own building? You get your sorry ass out, tonight. JARVIS, cancel that order!"

Two remote Suits entered. Tony crossed his arms and matched Steve's glare- until the suit folded around him suddenly, securing him.

"My apologies, Master Stark," JARVIS broadcast over Tony's endless stream of curses (some of which he learned from Steve and was only just getting to try out) echoing from inside the Suit, "Avengers protocol 257 overrides any other commands. Your judgement and perhaps your person have been compromised to the detriment of your teammates."

The Suit with Tony in it left and the second remained, "Miss Inessa, I am capable of interfacing with the device and may retract and release the reservoir, if you so desire. Once installation has been completed it may only be removed by Master Stark."

Something the Suit said sparked in her mind through the rampant fury. _Almost got me_. She heard JARVIS repeat the question and cut it off halfway through, "No, just- just don't let him near me again." the Suit signaled the affirmative and left to follow its twin.

 _Your judgement and perhaps your person have been compromised_. Tony never handed Inessa something directly. He always let her make the move. He certainly never _grabbed_ her. And the way he carried on like nothing was wrong after she hit him... Bucky was as much on bed rest as she was (and as tired of it), Sam had spent the afternoon in the gym, and Steve was up in his apartment, trying to put the pieces together to figure out who took down the medical suits... Tony was in his workshop- closer than anyone else to the front door. Doctor Pryor must have gotten to him when she arrived. The more Inessa considered it, the more it made sense, and the angrier she got.

"Nessa, are you alright?" Sam crouched down to look at her eyes. She was breathing hard, her eyes flicking side to side- either she was intensely focused on something or she was trapped in another waking nightmare- and that hadn't happened in over a week.

She shoved past Sam, marched around Steve, and stormed out of the room. Before she knew where she was headed, she was out on the balcony. Inessa paced like a caged wolf, trying to convince herself it was worth _not_ killing Pryor to see where this plan was going, but the rage was out of control. Was this how Hulk felt?

"Inessa?" Bucky came out to stand a respectful distance from her. She was pacing along the edge of the landing pad- no fence, no safety net, "Talk to me."

She stopped abruptly and looked out over the city, trying to get command over her emotions. Something else was in control now- probably the work of Pryor or those other creatures she'd seen on Bucky and Steve. The former came up behind her and put a hand on her shoulder to try and get her attention. She turned and grabbed his wrist in a tight grip. Their eyes locked.

All it took was a sweep of the feet, a tip, and Inessa shoved Bucky over the edge of the platform- still holding onto him. The balcony was lined with speakers, but the outside of the building wasn't. Bucky pulled Inessa against him. Steve had survived a fall at the Triskellion- albeit from about a fifth of the height, but he was determined to protect Inessa. He felt everything twist suddenly, the world became a little brighter, and they went flying across a field of sharp, gray stones.

He took the brunt force of the hit and groaned as his still-healing injuries screamed in protest of the violence. Inessa had spun out of his arms and came to a stop several feet away, groaning. She was cut up, but fine. She panted and jumped to her feet, still unable to break away from the blind rage. Bucky uneasily stood and watched her hesitantly- she was completely feral.

The Valley twisted and warped around them as Inessa turned her attention from shadow to shadow at a pace his eyes couldn't match. He stared at her, mouth open, and didn't even notice Nadya approach until she nuzzled his hand. Abruptly the shadows froze, solidified on the winding outline of a tunnel system or underground structure. Bucky knew then what she was doing.

"Inessa, no," he finally went to her and grabbed her with his metal arm, "absolutely not."

"Pryor is one of them," she was staring at the building. Silver mist rolled from her eyes as black smoke trailed down her arms. She hadn't used her power like this since she brought Bucky back. "She's the one who had Tony do this," she held up her arm. The ice pack was still held against it. "I'm done. I'm done being Hydra's toy, I'm done being scared."

Bucky swallowed hard. If she stepped through the shadow he had a feeling he'd never see her again, at least not until his nightmare came to pass. "They used you for seventy years. They used me for seven. I'm not waiting for luck to drop the puppet-master in our laps. I'm getting the information myself. Come if you want." she vanished into the darkness. Nadya looked up at him, then followed her mistress.

He couldn't deny her sentiment. Pryor- it made sense. He'd been trying so hard to _not_ be the Winter Soldier, he forgot to keep his defenses up. The doctor, the kids tailing them. He'd let Hydra make an idiot out of him. Pryor, she was no different than Aristov. Bucky told himself he was guarding her, that his actions were for her own good, but he felt the bloodlust rising again and wanted nothing more than to feed it.

Hydra wanted a weapon when they made him, and he was happy to provide a demonstration of how well their work was done. When the pack entered the shadow Bucky followed, steak-knife in hand.

* * *

Even though Pryor's handiwork was fueling Inessa's rage, she managed to resist opening a door to the most crowded room in the facility, and for that Bucky was grateful. He was in street clothes, not a tactical suit, and one little steak knife wasn't quite enough in a large, open space like a mess hall. When he stepped into the dark corridor behind her all he saw was a blur of black mist and blood.

Everyone saw the cute little fight between Inessa and Natasha, but now- with her powers back- Inessa was another beast entirely. She moved around the Hydra agents, diving in and out of shadows so frequently that it was hard to catch a glimpse of the girl. Natasha called the move "too slow", but like this even Black Widow wouldn't be able to land a hit. Bucky was so entranced watching her, he almost missed the operative move into position behind him. Almost. The soft scrape of boot on stone captured his attention and he jumped to the side before the gun fired.

"Don't stop moving!" he didn't realize he was shouting in Russian- he was in full Winter Soldier mode now. Bucky spun around, ducked, and ran head first into the man's stomach, simultaneously lifting him and flinging him back so that he hit the concrete floor head first. Bucky didn't wait to see if it dazed him or not. he took his knife and plunged it into the top of the man's head twice.

Bucky searched the body and began hooking grenades, smoke bombs, and flash bangs through the belt loops on his pants. He shoved a couple of spare magazines in a pocket and retrieved the man's gun. He was forced to relinquish his hopes of taking the tactical gear- the man was at least two sizes too small. "Get behind me!" he ordered, still in Russian. Inessa obeyed quickly, "I need the armory." Her eyes went from silver to downright pearly as she scanned the base from the shadows for the weapons room. An alarm suddenly blared, "Sooner rather than later!"

"Go left!" she pointed ahead. Bucky led. Inessa's wolf pack covered them well enough, but it wasn't a small facility, and they were thinning out the horde behind them, not ahead. The wolves didn't go where she instructed, they were strong-willed and wild, Bucky knew he couldn't rely on them much for assistance.

When they rounded the turn to see an empty hallway, Inessa broke out from behind. Someone was there, Bucky could sense it, but he couldn't see anything. A chameleon- had Hydra finished a small-form reflective shield? To Inessa it was something else entirely- something blinding. Through Nadya's eyes she saw a pillar of silver- pure, concentrated. She extended her senses to the Valley, for a moment passed into it. There were two silver pillars now- no four, no- seven. Not quite powerful enough to break through, but enough that their presence was known. It was tainted, whatever it was, unfinished. New still.

Inessa pulled her body into the Valley but pushed her mind into Nadya. The wolf grew and changed, and her vision of the person solidified. Within seconds of entering the hallway the shadow-wolf was lunging at its invisible enemy, ripping through him, and continuing on its way. But there was resistance- something tangible.

"Where are you going?" The Shadow shot back the direction they came. Bucky ran after it. The creature lunged through the halls, there wasn't enough time to check intersections in the tunnels. Bucky threw grenades or gas down each one, it was all he had time for. The Shadow vanished twice more and re-emerged in explosions of blood and gore, all that marked whoever Hydra had waiting in the shadows.

A metal bunker door blocked their path- some massive structure with multiple locks and scanners. Bucky counted six different security protocols, and that was just what he could see. A heavy-weapons vault, the Winter Soldier was never allowed in one before. The Shadow didn't hesitate. It tackled Bucky, pulled him into the Valley, and emerged on the other side, ready for a fight.

Only a handful of scientists got in their way, and so Bucky dispatched them with his gun while the Shadow dissolved in the bright lights. Inessa forced open a portal and dropped through, weakened by the effort. Bucky put his metal arm on her back to help hold her up as she panted, "Self destruct," she pointed to a large boxed-in device on the far side of the room, "Use the bodies to arm it... wait for my signal."

"If you destroy this base, you kill everyone," he cautioned, "Everyone on the surface is at risk too. That's innocent people Inessa, you don't kill innocent people."

She swallowed hard, still struggling. Her eyes flashed pearly-white for only a moment, "Injuries, yes, but no one will die. The city is far enough away, they'll be safe. I'll get the prisoners out and come get you... We have to stop them..."

"From what?"

"They weaponized it... Project Helius... It's back... We have to stop them," she gave him one last, pleading look before diving back into the Valley, "blow it straight to Hell."

* * *

 


	25. Chapter 23: New Alliance

**Chapter 23: Avenger's Tower**

Returning three hours later, Bucky and Inessa stepped out of the shadows in the lobby and, a moment later, Inessa felt the Valley sealed off. She was grounded once more. Sam and Steve (presumably alerted by JARVIS) came quickly down the stairs.

Inessa braced for another argument, but Sam only smiled softly. Steve looked tired, but relieved, "I'm glad you're back safely. Where were you two?"

"A park," Inessa mumbled, "I don't know where. It was sunny."

"No wonder you look ready to drop," Sam resisted the urge to prop up the pale, shivering teen. How long would it take her to sleep off that trip? Moving two people through broad daylight- she barely got a folder of papers through before.

She only nodded in reply, tipping slightly even as she did so. "We'll talk in the morning, alright?" Steve's voice was gentle. Inessa nodded and walked just past him to a long, low couch. She fell across it and was asleep before her head hit the cushions.

"I didn't know she was going to do that, jumping off the balcony-," Bucky started.

Steve cut him off, "I know, Buck. We saw the footage. Tell me just one thing, ok?"

"Anything."

"Half an hour after you left there was a massive explosion outside a small Japanese city. SHIELD thinks it might have been a Hydra facility detonating. Was that you two? Inessa was pretty pissed, if she pulled you along, if she didn't give you a choice but to cover her-"

"Absolutely not," Bucky stopped Steve before he got any further. It didn't take a genius to predict what Steve and the others would do to Inessa if they found out- best case scenario she would be out of Avengers tower, worst case (and most likely), she would be sent to some kind of psychiatric treatment facility that looked more like a Hydra prison than anything. Whatever the Avengers decided would "cure" her.

On aselfish level, Bucky also wantedto protect her forhis own sake. He'd woken up something in that base, something more Winter Soldier than Bucky Barnes, a bloodlust the darker side of him knew an alliance with Inessa might feed. It was mostrous, sick, and it made lying easy, "She jumped around a lot, like she wanted to run but didn't know where to. We stopped, finally, at that park." he was content to leave it there for a moment. If he focused too much on the park, it could peak Steve's suspicions. What would an innocent man say next? "Were there any fatalities? Should we get involved?"

"Seventeen injured so far, nothing even worth more than a day or two of observation in the hospital. No missing limbs, no dead pets. The injuries may rise, but no one will die."

"Well that's good at least," he felt sorry for Steve. The man looked worn down. Further disappointing him with the truth would only make things worse. At least, that was what Bucky told himself, "If it helps, I'm fairly certain we were somewhere near Seoul, maybe in China. Eastern Asia, for sure."

"How can you be sure?" Sam was curious.

Bucky shrugged, "The smell. In late summer there's always a smell like grass mixed with something spicy."

Steve accepted his word with a nod, but Sam wasn't convinced. He didn't press the issue for the exact same reason Bucky was telling himself he lied- for the sake of his friend. Maybe it would be something he could work through with Bucky separate from the other Avengers.

"It was a nice park," Bucky smiled a little, "lots of trees, a little stream just deep enough to wade in. Warm, like she said. There were no real paths, just areas with a bit less grass. We were lucky, there weren't many people there- I think I saw a kid and a few picnickers. No one came too close." The park wasn't a lie, which is why he could sell it so easily.

Inessa was upset after they used the blood and eyes of the scientists to blow the base. There were no people in need of freeing, so instead she went back for the armory and packed every explosive she could carry around the burning, silver pillar of light that was the Helius device- the same one that killed her mother and gave her power. Just touching a hand to the raw stream of energy burning through it was enough to jolt her own powers to another level- one that didn't let a little thing like raw daylight stop her. Inessa didn't share this revelation with him though.

Bucky didn't know why Inessa chose that park. It was bright, cheerful- and incredibly draining to open a door through to. They could have gone anywhere dark- opening the door wouldn't have cost Inessa anything, but for some reason she chose the park. She seemed fine at first, but as the effects of the Helius device wore off, she grew more and more tired. Initially she lay on the grass with her feet in the stream and listened to the birds and bugs, but little by little Bucky saw color draining from her, dark bags form under her eyes, and her face was less relaxation as it was unbridled exhaustion. He shook her awake after two hours and suggested they return before the full effects of her power use were felt and they were trapped for who knows how long on the wrong side of the world.

Still, he had a feeling the rest in the park did more for Inessa than it could ever cost to open the return door into the Valley. She wasn't using anger to fuel her recovery for those hours, she simply let herself be as she wished to be- free. He sat a ways downstream to give the girl some time alone and rinsed his hands and arms in the water (In crossing into the Valley, Inessa left all of the blood behind- including the gore on Bucky, but he still felt dirty).

"Sounds like paradise."

Bucky looked over to Sam, "It really was."

"Thanks for keeping an eye on her. I know you didn't have much choice," Steve glanced over as a remote suit entered and gently lifted Inessa from the couch to carry her upstairs. She didn't stir. "And thank you, JARVIS."

"My pleasure, sir," The A.I.'s voice was quiet, as if he were whispering. How had a guy like Tony- who was roughly 99% sass, created something... kind?

"Any theories on why Stark did it?"

Sam took this one, "He said he was tired of our 'Town Hall' debates on everything, so he took executive action. We can't get him to see that executive action _cannot_ extend to unsanctioned human experiments. There was also a lot of swearing."

"It sounds like someone has their hooks in him," Bucky swore to Inessa in the park he wouldn't reveal Pryor's deception- not even to the doctor herself. If she went after him again, he'd just play along. Nothing but the guilt he still felt over his role in Project Echo made him obey the will of the teenager. That didn't mean he couldn't warn Sam and Steve somehow.

"Or he was just being Tony," Steve dismissed his theory. Bucky silently cursed.

"We'll figure it out," Sam shrugged, "but this time, let's do it before Hydra detonates half of New York's major tourist attractions, OK?"

Steve nodded his agreement, "If things get sketchy, more so than they already are, we'll head back to Clint's farm. New York's citizens have tolerated more than their share from us over the years. The goal is no civilian casualties next time."

After that they began to go their separate ways, conversation over. A loud grumble came from Bucky's stomach almost immediately. Sam patted his human shoulder, "We saved you and Inessa some food. You know how to use a microwave yet?"

* * *

**Sebastian Morris' Base - Location Unknown**

Morris had no way of knowing what was going on inside Avengers Tower- or forty stories beneath the balcony where Inessa and Bucky dissolved into shadow. He knew Pryor planted the seeds of dissent in Tony's mind- wholly against orders. The woman was a fool. Still, he needed her for now.

"Whenever plans start getting too big to manage, it means it's almost time to strike," John Ryker came to Morris in his office. Everyone knew the plan, and they'd seen his face when he heard Pryor's message- fury, rapidly contained. Only such unsavory company recognized it before his charming, cool mask returned.

"And yet we are nowhere near ready."

John disagreed, "You've got me, Albatross, Barton, Borson, Pryor, and the two demon-things. Count yourself in that mix and the element of surprise and the battle is all wrapped up with a bow. I admire your strategies, but believe me when I say that if you attacked right now, you'd win. If you wait, Pryor could blow the entire operation herself."

Morris didn't look back at him, "I have you, they have the Hulk. I have Albatross, they have Romanoff. I have one Barton, they have the other. I have Cul Borson, they have Thor Odinson, I have Pryor, they have your granddaughter, who is far superior in abilities by the way. I _may_ have Barnes and Rogers at one another's throats, or they may have them united. They have Stark. They have Sam Wilson. They outnumber us by one, maybe two- I doubt Pryor's usefulness will extend into open combat. Until our numbers are evenly matched, or until we have superior forces, we continue to grow. That is the deal we all agreed to- one kill each, no split focus. Thomas Dennisson was weak, he jumped the gun and lost the battle. I'll not lose the war.

"Is the turncoat bitch really worth all this?" John never called Inessa or Nadya or whoever she was by name. As far as he was concerned she'd turned her back on everything her family stood for. Hydra to the core- no exceptions allowed.

"My master believes so, and therefore I do as well."

"So who else joins the party?" A new voice came from the doorway, prompting Morris to turn at last.

"Welcome back mister Barton- pardon, Berny," Morris raised a cup of tea in a _cheers_ gesture, "wonderful work in New York."

Berny nodded to Ryker, acknowledging his presence, "It gave me the opportunity to field test the new hardware. Things have changed while I rotted in jail."

"And your medications?"

He held two gray vials up, "Right where I left them. I killed a lot of people to find this stuff. It'll extend my eyesight beyond even Hawkeye the Mighty," his voice was bitter on the last part.

"Why do you hate him so much again?" Ryker still wasn't the biggest fan of trusting a man to kill his own blood. On the other hand, he'd end Nadya in an instant for her insolence, if he could. Perhaps then he was judging unfairly. Berny seemed like a decent man.

"He bugs me. Plus, he tried to kill me first," Berny growled, tracing the scar on his cheek. "Oh, and his girlfriend locked me up for almost 20 years. I'll thank her for that one by taking him out. If she's still fighting Albatross when that happens, I'll give her his eyes on the point of one of his arrows."

"Don't tease the prey," Morris reminded him. This wasn't the first time he'd said it to his cabal, "That is the demise of every foolish man. Kill fast, savor the sight of the corpse rather than the kill itself. You can give Natasha your gift when Albatross has finished. Otherwise you risk galvanizing her against the both of you and we end up two men down. One loose Avenger is too many for my taste."

"As long as I get to give someone his eyes, skewered on an arrow, and I get pictures- I'm happy."

"Good," Barton was easy to get along with, Morris liked him, "and as for your earlier question- I've had my eye on one new ally for some time, I just need final permission to approach her handlers. I'm closing in on Sam Wilson's enemy."

"I get confused, so bare with me," Berny shrugged. "You're _not_ Hydra?"

"Correct."

"Do they know that?"

"No."

"But you still work with them?"

"When our interests are aligned."

"And when this is all over and the Avengers are dead?"

Morris had arranged everything, "Cul Borson will rule this realm. You may serve under him as you do me now in exchange for kingdoms and wealth, I have his word, or you may return with me to meet my master and rule entire solar systems."

Berny smiled, "Cosmic Emperor Berny Barton, now that's my kind of prize."

"Not bad at all," Ryker began making plans for his new kingdom. He'd not leave Earth, he wasn't as ambitious and overly-thirsty for power. Ruling a solar system hardly sounded like a fun second-life. A kingdom though? A utopia for Hydra to flourish and grow unchecked? That he was willing to bank on."

"Don't get ahead of yourselves," Morris warned. "We haven't won the war... yet," he allowed himself a little smile and a little hope, "but if Sin joins us? We're one very large step closer."

"Who's Sin?" Ryker didn't recognize the name, and he'd known about all of Hydra's assets.

"The Red Skull's very own daughter."

* * *

 


	26. Chapter 24: The Secret Messenger

**Chapter 24: Location Unknown  
**

_God dammit, would you turn around?_ He had a feeling this one was a bit more important than the others, and he felt like on this occasion he couldn't simply wait and hope for a better picture. The man's silhouette was hardly useful. If he got into the building without-

A small flock of birds, startled by some unknown predator, took off to his east and the man's head whipped around. He looked like he was ready to kill. The man hiding in the tall grass snapped a few close pictures before the other one turned and entered the shack along with a dozen Hydra guards- judging by their black tactical suits.

The Avengers (damn stupid name) probably knew this guy already. He dressed weird, and the eccentric ones tended to be more well known. The guy looked like he came out of some sort of Norse painting- long flowy white beard, big eyebrows, and more muscles than a man that old had any business possessing. He was also eight feet tall- which kind of added to the Norse-God look. The eccentric ones weren't just well known- they tended to be more dangerous.

He backed down the low slope he'd been laying on and extended his senses in all directions around his position- smell, hearing, sight- he could _feel_ the ground humming with the lowering elevator as the man descended. _Shack my ass_. That was the entrance to a bunker. But he'd already figured that one out. As he adjusted his position, the man monitored the area around himself. No movement betrayed a watcher, no sound signaled someone turning as well. He was going unobserved as always. Perfect. He rose up a bit and jogged away at a low crouch until he rounded a bend, then vanished into the trees of a small creek that wound through the land. He ran in the shallow stream of water for several miles, until he was soaked, exhausted, and panting.

The creek ended in a lake where kids loved to run and jump and play- the perfect place to hide. Stomping around, he'd found where the lake bed hid a sort of U-bend. With his enhanced abilities he'd found his way down to it the first time. Kids had probably died trapped inside- there was a metal grate over the rocks that marked the entrance, but he'd removed it easily enough. It must have been down there for decades, if not a century or two. The thing looked ancient.

He pulled the bars aside and dove down, then angled up sharply with the contour of the tunnel. When he reached the air pocket, he resisted the urge to gasp for air- it stank to high hell down here. From his backpack he pulled out plastic bags that protected a mobile printer and all the accoutrements it would require. In the secrecy of the cavern, still half in the water, he printed out the photographs he'd just taken. He tossed them in a folder, drew a red hourglass on the cover, and slipped them back into the plastic they'd come from. He had to keep moving.

He didn't know why he was taking these pictures for the Avengers. He didn't even try to puzzle it out- he just did it. It had kept him alive up through now, his policy of just doing whatever seemed natural. He only hoped they got their heads out of their asses long enough to figure out whatever this Sebastian Morris guy was planning- if that was even ever his name. He was a whisper at the back of the minds of several of Hydra's higher ups- a faint, nagging sensation no one could really pinpoint in their records. Whoever he worked for, they were powerful, and not in the buy-the-police kind of way. In the hire-a-psychic kind of way.

The Psychic, now there was another issue. He had pictures of all the men Morris was recruiting, he'd shared them all, but he didn't dare take a picture of the psychic. He'd only ever met one other, but that girl always knew when her picture was being taken, no matter what measures he took. _Damn Jean Gray._ He wasn't about to blow the whole thing on one photograph. Besides, the kid living with the Avengers looked smart enough. He had a feeling she wasn't fooled. There was something in her eyes, an icy blade, that told him all he needed to know about her. The psychic couldn't be all that good anyways, if she didn't even realize the kid wasn't on her side. The other Avengers didn't know about the psychic, and he didn't exactly trust the girl to clue them in, but it was beyond his control.

He dove back into the water once everything was sealed up tight and swam for the far end of the cavern. He'd laid out a rope through the area with the least amount of underground projections to watch out for, and on either side of it he'd installed buoys with internal power supplies to feed a dim light. The guy he'd bought them off of swore up and down they'd last for a week apiece. So far he'd been right.

In the water, here and there, corpses floated. Side caverns and tunnels were filled with more bodies. Silver leaked into the water here, but it didn't matter. The poison (as he thought of it) didn't seem to harm anyone it touched- so long as it didn't hit blood. No pipes or wells drew from the cavern either, probably a decision made by the same early farmers who put the bars on the tunnel. They didn't want to drink water that probably held the remains of their children (and indeed there were a few small skeletons down here). He had a good enough idea who was responsible for the corpses. The kid _really_ didn't like Hydra.

It took about half a hour to swim across the cavern slowly. On the other side it was an easy enough matter of following a dirt path down several marked side tunnels and branches, crawling in some places and squeezing through others. Clint Barton thought he was so smart, building his farmhouse on top of an underground tunnel system- the perfect escape should anyone try to take out the SHIELD agent. If he'd been a bit more careful, perhaps he'd have found _all_ the tunnels. Or even any of the interesting ones. Clint's tunnels ran for several miles, then angle upwards to a hatch he'd installed. These tunnels came from beneath, and scooped around the entire property. The man who ran inside them now had only to feel for where the vibrations were quicker, more tightly connected, then break through into the main tunnel. On his way out he was careful to pile up the rocks. They'd at least pass a cursory inspection.

He followed Clint's tunnels until he reached the hatch under the farmhouse porch. This was where the man got nervous every time. He pulled the folder out, removed it from it's plastic bag, and listened carefully for the other Avengers. They were inside the house and the barn, separately working on the riddle of the other photographs he'd delivered. He lifted the hatch and dove out from under the porch. He grabbed a rock that lined the flower beds and set it atop the folder, which he placed in front of the back door, before running back into his tunnel as fast as possible. He didn't know if Stark's suits were on alert for new life signs suddenly popping up inside the perimeter, but he wasn't willing to find out. He just hoped the Avengers weren't stupid about the photographs he was risking his neck to deliver.

As he ran back through the tunnels, covering his tracks all the while, he wondered what they would do if they knew their enemy was camping out just ten miles down the street...

* * *

 


	27. Chapter 25: One Worse Than Apocalyptic

**Chapter 25: Clint's Farmhouse**

"Oops, he did it again," Thor picked up the latest folder when he returned from the loft and dropped it on the kitchen table.

Clint snickered, "Thor, I admire that you made a pop culture reference, and I'm impressed you even got it in the right context-"

"-thank you," he said proudly.

"-now never say it again. If Fury heard you, he'd kill you," he passed the file to Natasha, "More dead ends, I'll bet. Wherever these guys are in the pictures, that was months ago. Safe bet they aren't there now."

Natasha flipped through the photos absentmindedly, "All of the same guy, no name." She tilted her head, "He looks... I don't know, Asgardian?"

Thor came to see the pictures for himself, "That is not possible Natasha. I would know if any of my people-" he saw the face of the man and stopped dead in his tracks. His mouth fell open and all color drained from his face. He even quit breathing.

"Earth to Thor," Banner stood next to his friend and waved a hand in front of his face, "You in there, buddy?"

"Heimdall?" Thor barely murmured.

"What?" Banner leaned in.

"Heimdall?" he sounded like a child who'd seen the monster that lurks under the bed.

"That's Heimdall? Thor, I don't get it, I thought Heimdall was an ally..."

Thor took one long, ragged breath, "Heimdall?" he tore his eyes away from the face and ran for the door. All three followed. As soon as his feet hit the dirt of the back yard he began shouting, "HEIMDALL? ANSWER ME!" he waited, desperate, for only a few seconds, "DAMN THE ALLFATHER'S DECREE! IS IT HIM?! IS HE LOOSE?!" Again, evidently there was no reply, "I MAY BE IN EXILE BUT I AM STILL ASGARD'S REPRESENTATIVE IN THIS REALM AND I DEMAND ANSWERS! IS IT HIM?!"

That, at least, moved the keeper of the Bifrost to disobey orders and speak only one word that echoed in the minds of the Avengers, "Yes."

The prince fell to his knees. He stared at the ground, "Thor, who is he? What's wrong?" Banner and Clint approached slowly.

Thor thought of something and jumped up, the other two flinched back from the manic demi-god. He only activated his communication device, "JARVIS, tell our allies in SHIELD to find Jane Foster. Hide her as well as any on Midgard can hide. Somewhere remote and safe. If there is a path off this realm, shove her through kicking and screaming if need be."

"Thor, stop." Natasha stepped around the boys and confronted him directly, "Tell me who he is."

He held up a hand to stop her and looked skyward, "HOW LONG?!"

"Three days. That is all I will say." Odin would know if he did more, Heimdall _had_ to keep quiet.

"The photographs are new."

"So Morris is alive," this gave Natasha precisely what she needed to prove it to the others- without Berny's pictures.

Banner came to stand by her, "Who is he? Thor, what are we dealing with?"

Thor gulped, visibly shaken, and answered, "My father's elder brother, Cul Borson."

"And that's bad," it wasn't a question, but Thor nodded anyways, "tell us about him."

"He has been locked away since before I was born, since the first days of my father's reign. You call me God of Thunder, my father God of Wisdom, my brother God of Mischief. Cul Borson... He you would call God of Fear."

Clint tried to lighten the mood, "So, no fun at parties?"

Thor was not, as he liked to put it, in a gaming mood, "He draws life from those around him, literally. All his power _infects_ become his slave. My father lost thousands trying to capture him after he was passed over for the crown. Thanks to him, an entire realm fell to flame. It is said to have required the Casket to even contain him."

"Why did he burn the realm?" Clint was willing to bet it wasn't a party trick gone awry.

"You misunderstand," Thor shook his head, " _he_ did not burn the realm. We did. The Counsel of Yggdrasil gave the Casket to the Jotuns- the only ones he could not draw from. They killed every last man, woman, and child to break his hold. _Destroyed_ the home realm of the Valkyrie, and made of the Icari'i an extinct race. Only then, when he had none left to fuel his power, could he be taken. My father threw him in the deepest, darkest cell in all the nine realms, guarded him with thirty destroyers, left him chained with the same metal forged in the same star on the same day as Mjolnir generations ago!" he went from a shout to a whisper, "What sort of creature could have released him?"

"And why partner up with an ex-Hydra lackie," Natasha felt a cold tingle up her spine, "We're sure this Morris guy is human, right?"

"I know not, but it is no coincidence that he is here now. It took a genocide to stop him last time. The Icari'i world burned, their link in the Bifrost was destroyed wholly and completely. It took but a week. If he has had three days and we've seen nothing? Whatever controls Cul, son of Bor, it is evil incarnate."

The words hung in the air for a long time before Banner spoke, "The Jotuns kept the Casket- that's what started the war?" He nodded, "So we probably can't count on their help. Or Asgard's, apparently." Banner considered it, "An old associate of Natasha's, my old friend General Ryker, the Asgardian equivalent to Hitler, Steve and Bucky at one another's throats... Things are getting weird."

"No," Natasha had a hunch, "Me versus Albatross, you versus Ryker, Bucky versus Steve, Thor versus Cul, and Clint versus-" she cut herself off suddenly.

"I'm not important enough for an enemy, apparently," Clint pouted.

Natasha let out her breath, "The point is, he's matching our forces. Not one impossible enemy, one _each_."

"I don't see Bucky and Steve fighting to the death," Banner was apprehensive. "The 'to the death' bit, I mean. Fighting is _very_ easy to visualize. And, I mean, Clint has a point. If this Morris guy is the recruiter, why don't we have _more_? Sam, Tony, Clint, even someone for Inessa? She's why Dennisson lost control of New York. If he's smart enough to hunt down our old enemies he wouldn't be dumb enough to count her out. He's gotta be someone to pull this off, I grant you that, but he doesn't look like the type to fight in his own battles. Where are the rest? Cul Borson hardly sounds like someone you keep waiting around until a fight happens to break out.

Natasha just shook her head, "I've got a feeling," she looked to Clint.

"The lady's never been wrong," he nodded, "I say we plan for the worst. If we're wrong, it's a pleasant surprise."

Thor was still pale, "If he has Cul Borson's allegiance, we're already dead."

"Then it's time to call in reinforcements," Natasha returned to the farmhouse to call Steve.

* * *

**Location: Unknown**

Slime dripped from the walls and collected in putrid, green pools on the cave floor. Air did not dare to move in this evil place- not even a whisper of a breeze could be felt.

The women who lived here were warped, gnarled, ancient. So long they had guarded their charge, never leaving the cave, that they forgot the feeling of sunlight on their skin. They found sustenance in the small fish that thrived in the freshwater pools, in what strands of plant life clung to the rocks in the darkness. Total, complete isolation, just as their long-absent god decreed.

Only the pale, thin light of the cryo chamber illuminated their world. Inside their sleeping angel waited for her time of rising.

She was beautiful- flame colored hair, blood red eyes, blue-white skin. A raw spark of fire just waiting to be unleashed. It had been whispered long ago that she was the god's greatest weapon, bred to bring absolute ruin to his enemies. Bred to grant the mercy of death to the watchers in the cave.

The god granted a singular gift when he passed down his charge. He gave them eternal life, immunity to illness or disease, even enough strength to keep them going for nearly a century, locked deep within the Earth. The same potion that made him a god made them his eternal servants- a simple injection an eternity ago. But, at long last, the signal came. Three clicks on a long-dead radio the god himself designed. Three short clicks, and it was time for the world to burn.

While six women went to unseal the tunnel, the 7th and oldest went to the tube. She was hesitant- it had been so long, could they have imagined it? _No_. Three clicks. It was time. She pressed the little blue button and the machine began to hiss and creak. It would be hours yet, but their angel would wake soon enough.

Sinthea Schmidt, heir to the Red Skull, was returning to the surface at last.

* * *

**Avenger's Tower: Gym**

"Nessie, can I talk to you for a minute?" she stopped rubbing at her arm and sat down on the balance beam she had been pacing along. Steve leaned on it next to her and twiddled his thumbs, how to begin?

"What's wrong?" she hadn't gotten into trouble over her dive off the roof yesterday (though now the balcony door was locked), Inessa just figured they were choosing her punishment carefully.

"We are unsteady, typically unstable, unprofessional most of the time, uneven in abilities, and nearly all of us are stubborn as hell. Basically, we're a train wreck. We manage to figure it out in the end though- how to work together," she didn't see where this was going. "None of us have anything much more than one another and a handful of very close friends, and only Thor even has family anymore."

She _really_ didn't see where this was going, "The point is, there isn't a single one of us who came from a normal home- you included. Thor excluded. I had amazing parents, but they died a very long time ago. The simple truth is that you are a teenager. You're sixteen with the education of a fourteen year old, but I think you're even older than that in some ways."

She _really really_ didn't see where this was going, "Get. To. The. Point," Sam said slowly. He'd come to watch Steve deliver the news, but this was getting ridiculous.

"Right, um," Steve leaned back and looked Inessa in the eyes, "We don't know anything about how to raise a kid. You've done everything we've asked. You made progress with Doctor Pryor- _amazing_ progress. You've been training every day and doing everything we ask. Even when we were prepared to give you a pass, you resisted going on an unauthorized Hydra raid and chose to cool off in a nice, safe park," (they'd finally managed to verify Bucky and Inessa's story and track the damned place down).

Inessa felt guilty all of the sudden. She was consumed with thoughts of the Helius device, but asking for help would mean admitting she and Bucky had lied. How well would _that_ end?

"We've decided to cut you some slack."

Sam smiled, "JARVIS? Now's good."

Nadya dove from the shadows behind a gym mat the second the frequency was halted- Inessa didn't even realize she'd been trying to open the door. The room darkened considerably and the wolf went straight to it's mistress, jumping up and down and wagging it's tail like a real dog and not some freak shadow-denizen. Inessa tried to ease the tremor in her hands. Nadya licked her neck, "There are rules," Steve continued, "if you follow them, you keep your powers."

She just nodded, whatever they wanted, "You go _nowhere_ without one of us present to make sure you're safe. You keep up with your work, and that includes your sessions with Doctor Pryor. You don't miss a single, solitary one. Plus," he grabbed her hand and squeezed, "you get one more job."

"What?" she whispered, overwhelmed.

"You start studying again. We'll figure out all the fine print, you'll have to have a whole new identity built, but we're scrapping the 'until you are 18' rule and replacing it with 'until you are a high school graduate'. Do you understand?" It was a measure, stunningly, all Avengers agreed on almost instantly (except Tony, who lost his vote when he lost his mind).

"Hey," Steve put a hand on her shoulder when she slid down from the beam, "this is good. It means we trust you to do what's right. The same threats apply as always, but even so- we're all really proud of you."

Somehow that only made her feel worse.

* * *

**Avengers Tower**

"Smooth, very well thought out speech," Sam walked back to the lobby with Steve.

"Shut up," he laughed in spite of himself.

"It was like listening to a Shakespearean sonnet, or Winston Churchill... Or someone with severe brain damage."

"Shove it up your ass," Sam gaped, scandalized. Steve laughed harder, "Stop cheering me up, I need to be serious, there are leader-ie things to do." he punched his friend lightly in the arm. Unfortunately, "lightly" for Steve Rogers was enough to bruise Sam Wilson.

"Well, cheer is important. We have an urgent call from Old MacHawkeye and the gang."

"Oh, sure, build up my mood then, just when it gets good, spoil everything."

"I've already called Bucky down," now _there_ was a downer. Bucky. Never knew if _he_ was going to show up or the Winter Soldier.

"How bad is it?"

Sam thought, "What's one worse than 'Apocalyptic Bad'?"

Steve sighed dramatically, "That would be 'Avengers Bad'."

* * *

 


	28. Chapter 26: Despair and Deception

**Chapter 26:** **Avengers Tower**

No one spoke as they packed, the feeling of despair was overwhelming in the tower. Even knowing Morris might be forming a death squad didn't help them much if they couldn't _find_ the bastard. In this case it was almost a guarantee whoever went on defensive would lose. Inessa, without much to pack, spent hours with her mind half in the shadows, looking for any sign of their enemy or anymore beacons from Project Helius. She couldn't trust even the shadows with something like that on the loose. If Hydra managed to create a doorway into the Valley or, god forbid, a Shadow of their own, then even that barren, dead world could be her own personal hell. She could open a simple door and be in the middle of a Hydra army. And it wouldn't be the kind she slaughtered single-handedly.

All her efforts were for naught though, no amount of searching turned up results.

Was Pryor _her_ enemy, assigned by Morris? Could Project Helius' resurrection be a part of all this? Neither answer explained what was happening, or what any of them could do to stop Cul Borson.

After a long, tense discussion they elected to let Inessa bring them to Clint's farm via the Valley. As useful as the jet may be in battle, there was no way to guarantee their mysterious archer wouldn't be able to destroy that too. They had to assume he was on equal tech footing with Clint, but with how things were progressing superiority was more likely.

They needed Tony, but not long after being locked up it was like whatever happened to turn him against his principles went into overdrive. He was now _convinced_ the others were working against him, trying to edge him out of his own life. Steve had him moved from a crafts room to his apartment once all the electronics were removed, but he practically devolved. He was almost feral, twitched uncontrollably, and was _obsessed_ with making more and more devices to control Inessa. Steve allowed him a box of crayons to draw plans out on the walls with after they caught him trying to gnaw at his own wrist to use blood as ink. The man in his apartment wasn't Tony anymore, and even a rare visit from Pepper wasn't anywhere near enough to rouse him.

Inessa didn't know what to do to help him. Tony's madness only kept growing, and it _had_ to be a result of Pryor's manipulation. She convinced Steve to keep them at the tower an extra day, if anything happened at the farm she could have them there in seconds. Inessa couldn't tell them about Pryor without losing that precious new trust the Avengers placed in her, but she couldn't do anything to help Tony either. There had to be actual psychics that SHIELD knew of, someone who could undo whatever manipulation was raging out of control, but how to tell the Avengers they needed it?

Bucky too was on edge, but for a very different reason. He couldn't stop thinking of what happened in the Hydra base. It felt _good_ to pay back some of what Hydra had forced him to dish out- better than he was probably supposed to admit. It made him feel righteous, powerful, in-control and not at the mercy of anyone. It felt the same when he killed Dimitri Aristov, Nikolai Ryker, whoever that creep thought he was. _No_ , Bucky corrected his thoughts, _it felt better_. While he had Aristov tied up and broke him bone by bone, he was constantly worried about Inessa seeing him from a shadow he might have missed illuminating, or of the Avengers somehow tracking his location. When he fought with Inessa it was honest, brutal, vengeance. For both of them.

The next night, when he again met Inessa in the lobby of Avengers Tower after a fitful nightmare, it was with little hesitation that he took her hand and let her lead him through into the Valley.

Another Hydra base, another massacre. This time he brought something a bit stronger than a steak knife. No guns- Steve would know if the Armory was low a few magazines, but without even speaking he knew Inessa would kill someone for him to loot. She exited the shadows of the Hydra facility in her form as the shadow-wolf, skewering a guard close to Bucky in size as he patrolled a dark hallway. Once he'd adopted the man's armor and weaponry, the real fun began.

They took it slow, Inessa staying mostly to her own kills and leaving Bucky to make progress through the base on his own. Once, when he rounded a corner on a large mess hall, he whispered quickly into the shadows and she appeared in a spray of blood and a roar of rage. They both managed to work off some stress that night _and_ be back before anyone knew they were gone.

 _Is it possible to be addicted to killing_? He told himself it was just Hydra, but if it wasn't wrong to kill organized evil, was it _really_ wrong to kill _unorganized_ evil? A mugger on the street could do just as much harm to a life- he saw it on the news every day. Maybe the others were wrong for refusing to see it- just how many people the world would be better off without.

Still, the way he'd twisted the facts of that first outing made him uneasy. The knowledge that he protected Inessa just so he could use her own brutality to bring him to his prey made him sick at heart. She was a kid, one he'd destroyed enough already, even if she refused to see it that way. The thought that he was sanctioning more violence, helping walk her down the Winter Soldier's path...

Bucky squashed the line of thought as soon as he realized where it was taking him. He didn't want to be some rabid killer, he wanted to be a hero. He'd always wanted to be a hero. Killing Hydra- even letting Inessa do it too- it served the greater good. He'd made the right call, enabling her.

His vision still haunted him- the Avengers dead, the Tower destroyed, Sam coming to kill Inessa, him being so invested in seeing her death that he was ready and willing to shoot her _through_ a friend. Inessa didn't know about the visions, everyone agreed that wouldn't be a good idea, in case knowing somehow pushed her in that direction. He doubted the others were still thinking about what he'd told them, but he knew firsthand that the dream tried to tell him something- _someone_ needed him to know.

There were too many layers, too many things lining up that demanded his attention, and Bucky had a feeling that was the plan. Keep the Avengers attention divided. The visions, the team forming against them, Project Helius- three missions, three mysteries, but which one was the real threat?

"Where's Inessa?" Bucky was beyond frustrated with the thoughts swirling through his mind. The mass-murder helped quiet the turbulence, but already the effects were wearing off. He had to turn to his partner- the one who rarely spoke directly to him, yet who also felt his bloodlust keenly. Maybe she could shine some light on the devices she'd seen in the Japanese base- all he knew was that it was keeping soldiers hidden and somehow touching the device supercharged her own abilities. Perhaps the key to their salvation _was_ Helius- max out Inessa's power then set her loose to find this Morris guy.

"Miss Inessa is in the armory," JARVIS chimed. "Based on my analysis of her fighting techniques and style I have synthesized a protective uniform for her should the need arise."

It would be perfect for their secret missions, but it was like a lead weight fell on Bucky's shoulders. He wanted to run from his room on the third floor all the way to the armory, but for some reason his feet weren't working quite right. They were going too slow. In his vision he'd seen her in a modified combat suit, something that looked like a cross between Natasha's tactical suit and Clint's archer duds.

 _She doesn't have the neck implant anymore_ , he told himself, _that part of the dream is already wrong._ He needed Inessa to be strong- to not turn into the killer his dream showed. She had to stay disciplined, controlled. Bucky stopped at the door to the armory and wiped his sweating palms on his shirt before punching in the code to open the door.

Inessa was out of the locker area and inspecting the suit in a mirror and Bucky couldn't be happier. The weight vanished as soon as he saw it- it looked just like Natasha's, but with the coloring changed to black with silver accents. There was thinner fabric over the crook in her elbow and her shoulders, but it couldn't have been further from what he'd seen. He didn't even realize he was grinning until Inessa shot him a frown. "Sorry," he covered the smile, "Nice suit. Decide on a weapon yet?"

"Those," Inessa pointed to a case on the bench behind her, "Steve doesn't want to rely on these in case Morris has the signal," she held up a hand, the silver in her eyes flashed brighter, and long, shadowy talons appeared.

Bucky opened the case and his smile returned, "Perfect." two long, curved daggers with forked hilts. The only vaguely resembled the other weapons, the scythe-axe hybrid weapons, "Do you want to spar later? Try fighting in the suit?"

"No," Inessa said quickly, "I want to fight Steve." _Of course, fighting with me and fighting me are two different things. She isn't ready for that yet_. He held no hard feelings, he was just relieved.

"I'm sure it'll be great," the world was going to hell, but he could cross one thing off his _To Worry About_ list- the visions weren't playing any part in the impending fight. "I'll just get back to-" he quickly excused himself to give her time to get used to her uniform- not that he hoped she would have to don it anytime soon. Bucky smiled to himself again and went to find the others.

"Thank you, JARVIS," Inessa turned back to the mirror once Bucky was gone, "it's nice, but what about the suit I designed?"

"I have fabricated that as well," a panel slid down to reveal the other uniform, "however, it does not have the same safety features as the one you are currently wearing."

"It'll be easier to move in though," Inessa put a hand out to touch the rough, durable fabric, "speed might be more important." The other suit was entirely black. Her eyes would give her away in any shadow if she opened the door too far, but the suit she had on might give her away much sooner- it was too bright with all of the silver decorations. This one was simple- the pants looked like those Steve, Sam, and Bucky wore, the top was reinforced with Kevlar plating, but the sleeves were only the width of two or three fingers, her shoulders would be free to swing without resistance. To make up for the limited protection of the shirt she would have upper arm guards made of thick, reinforced leather and forearm guards that were a dark, dull metal. She could catch blades with her arms without losing versatility in the joints. Finally, there were black fingerless gloves, studded at each knuckle to protect her hands and damage her enemies a bit more.

 _Bucky isn't the only one with dreams_. The only difference was that Inessa was willing to _learn_ from them.

"JARVIS, what do we have in the way of scythes?"

* * *


	29. Chapter 27: Filling the Ranks

**Chapter 27: Sebastian Morris' Base - Menno, South Dakota  
**

"Not having second thoughts are you, friend?" Albatross teased Berny as he entered hour 2 of his study of cell phone footage from the Second Battle of New York, "The young one _would_ make a rather fierce opponent."

"You know our host won't let her near us," Berny laughed, then consulted the complete Hydra file on Nadya Ryker- the one annotated by the late Commander Dennisson _and_ Nikolai Ryker, "I was just curious about something."

Morris wandered over from where he'd been sitting with Cul Borson, consulting on strategies, "Oh? Anything relevant to _your_ mission?"

Berny smiled at his tone. Morris was on edge with Pryor's report- the Avengers were regrouping and there was no subtle way to prevent it. He didn't like his Cabal distracted from their study of the individuals they'd be fighting, especially not now. "General curiosity, cross my heart. I'm just bored," he shrugged. "No one knows Clinton Barton like me, there's nothing new to learn."

"So then, what is your question?"

He forwarded the footage to the point where a pack of shadowy wolves launched from the Senate House ruins down the streets of New York and paused it, "Here we have the monsters of the Valley, just as Nikolai described them to Dennisson. We know now the failure of Project Echo came when she possessed one of them- her little mental vanishing act. I'm just curious... Is she really human?"

"How so?"

"The one wolf obeys her, always has. She can unlatch from her body, but that has nothing to do with her other powers. If she could just look through shadows, maybe teleport, that's one thing. But jumping ship? Teleportation and psychic projection are two  _totally_ different beasts. What if," he skimmed the report for the name, " _Emilie's_ kid really did die in the explosion and this," he gestured to a blurry, deeply shadowed figure on the screen, "is what possessed the corpse?"

It wasn't a bad question, Morris was impressed, "There is no way to know for sure, but if it is true then the pieces of the puzzle would certainly fit better."

Berny smiled with pride, "Like I said, changes nothing, but it's a thought."

"I like this one, he has a brain," Cul's deep voice filled the room. He raised his glass to Berny in a toast and took a sip of wine. Berny blew him a kiss and the gods expression immediately soured. He didn't approve of such cheeky humor.

"Either way, neutralizing her is our first move. If she has time to open a door and bring the Shadow through before we begin our broadcast, we lose _her_ , the prize. Killing the Avengers is a security measure, but our mission is _her_. Lord Thanos demands her for his collection."

"That's only because he hasn't met me yet," Albatross wheeled around and threw a dagger at the unknown speaker before his brain even registered seeing her. Berny likewise had a crossbow out and aimed- though he managed to stop himself from firing it.

Morris turned slowly, smiling, "I take it I have the _honor_ of addressing Sinthea Schmidt?"

"Sin," the woman flipped Albatross' blade and threw it back at him- he barely caught it. The name was apt- she looked like a demon. Her hair and even irises were an unnatural, flame-red, matching the red corset loaded down with the hilts of at least a dozen small knives. More blades were latched to cuffs on her arms and she had two short swords belted to her hips. Her eyes moved quickly, analyzing every detail in the room. Albatross smiled. She reminded him of Natasha- minus the overwhelming homicidal urges he felt when looking at his former ally. He didn't know Sin's training, but they had been enhanced by the same serum, this one was an equal at least.

"Gentlemen, may I present the daughter of the Red Skull. Though, I must inquire as to how you found your way down here. If there is a gap in our defenses it must be mended immediately."

"Lazy guards," she waved a hand dismissively, "dead already."

"Well, thank you for alerting us," there was no sarcasm in Morris voice. If there was, Sin would have slit his throat before anyone had a chance to move. She was everything he'd hoped Dennisson would turn out to be.

"Your plan?" her voice was barely accented, "My handlers did not share any details before I ended their service."

Morris motioned for her to sit on a vacant couch. She didn't budge, so he remained standing as well, "The Avengers are a powerful enemy. My master authorized an entire army to be sent against them, but they still won the day without so much as a casualty. When my last ally, Hydra commander Thomas Dennisson, divided their forces he came close to ending them."

"Close is not enough."

"Agreed. That is why I mean to improve upon his plan. He gave them four enemies. I will give them eight. Their greatest enemies, all at once. They will not be able to turn to one another for aid, and divided they will fall."

Sin nodded, it was a plan worthy of her involvement, "Who is my opponent?"

"Iron Man." Morris pointed to Berny who quickly pulled up footage of Tony Stark in battle, "He relies on advanced robotics, but his suits are embarrassingly susceptible to damage. We need a precision tool to extract him from the lineup, and you are more than qualified for this battle."

"My father suspected his technological rival, a fool named Howard Stark, may one day create an automated fighting machine. Provide me with schematics and more film of his fights and I will identify the weakness in the suit of armor."

Albatross was impressed, "This one is Anthony Stark, Howard's son."

"Then I'm in luck."

" _We_ are in luck," Morris corrected, "to have one such as you fighting for the Cabal."

"Yes, you are," she wasn't modest. "My father had me trained by every spy and combat specialist he could find. I even wiped out an entire generation of the Red Room's Black Widows during my time there. This fight benefits Hydra, and so it benefits me and my family."

 _Dramatic, idealistic, but more than capable of bringing down Tony Stark_ , Morris was willing to forgive any fault, so long as she lived up to her reputation, "Gentlemen, my lady, my lord," he half-bowed to Cul and Sin, "we are very nearly ready."

"Who's taking care of the bird?" John Ryker spoke up from an armchair near the back of the room.

"Bird?" Sin arched an eyebrow.

"The Falcon," Berny spoke up and pulled up the relevant media, "similar to Stark, but less protected. He could be taken down by anything really."

Morris hadn't decided yet, and Sin could read this on his face, "My father's MODOK device?"

He shook his head, "I've considered it, but MODOK would be useless once we activate the frequencies necessary to trap the Avenger's Shadow."

"Why be delicate?" John smiled, "The battle begins, the Avengers scatter to give one another space to fight, and the Falcon flies up for an aerial view. Great for seeing the war from above, disastrous if something were to happen to his wings."

"You want to detonate an electromagnetic device?" Morris rolled his eyes at the stupidity, "Have we _not_ said often enough that the frequency _must be maintained_ to keep the Shadow grounded?"

"I'm not that delicate," malice glinted in his eyes, "I was thinking more along the lines of shooting him out of the sky."

"Not an option. I don't want him so much as turning on the damned things."

Sin shrugged, "Then remove him before the battle even begins."

Morris' mind immediately went to Doctor Pryor. The woman was capable of impressive feats, could she maneuver the Falcon in such a way that the Avengers themselves might end the threat? The woman had proven too eager in the past- as battle neared he grew more and more certain that it would be best if he handled Inessa by himself, but could she actually still have a use?

"If she fails, they _will_ do everything in their power to extract intel from her." John didn't care one way or the other, but he was playing devil's advocate. He disagreed with Morris- the Cabal was already powerful enough for one to kill at least two Avengers, the least powerful and frankly least impressive of the lot was hardly a threat.

Sin pulled a small disk from her pocket and held it up, "Have her swallow this. Make up a reason why or hide it in her food. Once she has completed her task, detonate it. They cannot interrogate a dead woman."

Morris thought through it slowly, cautiously optimistic. He couldn't get too greedy, eliminating the Falcon would put the Avengers on alert, more so than they were after the little assassination attempt. "If we do this," he said carefully, "no one leaves the bunker until the day of the attack. We give them no way to trace it back to our location. If they remain divided, good. If they come together," he shook his head, "they are doing that already so it is no great loss. But we keep the size and specialty of our ranks a guarded secret." He wouldn't act, not unless everyone agreed to this plan. It was relatively sloppy, but he couldn't see an alternative- there was no way to ground the Falcon fast enough once battle began- and they had no idea what sort of protections the wings might have against manipulation or direct fire.

One by one they nodded, even Cul Borson. Morris approached Sin and took the disk with a nod of thanks, "You have ten hours to go fetch whatever supplies you may need- new arrows, weapons, equipment, then we lock down. With any luck, our short war begins and ends in two days."

* * *

In the morning Natasha found two pictures _nailed_ to the door in some act of desperation over subtlety. One was of "Sinthea Schmidt", a woman in red they could not trace. The messenger had had an "Oh, duh," moment and tracked down a picture of Doctor Pryor taken from the "About" page on her medical practice's website. Across her face he wrote in large, red letters "TRAITOR."

The warning arrived too late.

* * *


	30. Chapter 28: Traitors Among Us

**Chapter 28: Avenger's Tower**

"Anyone else willing to answer this door? Anyone? _Anyone at all_? Bueller?" Sam was standing in the stairwell and refusing to budge another inch- he'd been like that since JARVIS announced their visitor.

"Who is it?" Steve had his door open to the stairwell and heard him all the way up on the fourth floor.

"Doc Pryor."

"Oh hell no," he heard Steve's door close and a moment later the "leader" came through the comms, "I talked to her when we told her we were taking Nessie back to Clint's. That woman, I must say, is a _lot_ less charming on the phone."

"I know," Sam grumbled, "I heard your end of it... Bucky?"

"Can't."

"Busy?"

"No, I just don't want to," he couldn't lie to Pryor and fake buying her stories again- if he even could resist the mental push Inessa described. It wouldn't take much to get the bloodlust bubbling and he was determined to keep a lid on it today.

"Nessie?" she was showering after her sparring match with Steve, no way she'd be down. Sam sighed dramatically as the bell chimed again and dragged his feet all the way to the door.

"Oh!" Pryor seemed surprised to see him, but she recovered fairly quickly, "Mister Wilson, it's nice to meet you. I believe this is the first time I've had the pleasure?"

"Pleasure is all mine," he was determined to be the epitome of civility. "Are you here for Inessa? She's not actually available right now, she's in the shower."

"Well that's alright, I'm fine with waiting," she pushed her way past him into the lobby.

Sam rolled his eyes behind her back, "Well then, let's wait in here," he took her to the meeting room. She waited, eying her chair as if expecting him to pull it out for her. Sam went to it and she immediately closed the door behind them, then locked it.

 _Morris thinks I can't be useful anymore?_ She was prepared to teach him a lesson or two. Morris' demand was simple- make the Falcon take a swan dive off the balcony. She'd show him what her powers could _really_ do.

Sam turned abruptly as the door lock clicked, "Excuse me?"

"I wanted to have a private chat with you, Inessa's told me- well, she's told me some very disturbing things about Mr. Rogers."

A kind of anxious energy began to bubble up in Sam's chest, "What's wrong? Steve wouldn't do anything to hurt Nessie, he cares about her. We all do."

"It isn't what he's doing to Inessa," Pryor's powers influenced people, manipulated their perceptions, she couldn't quite convince him of something entirely made up. She had to build off of truth, then twist the hell out of it. "It's about what he is doing to you," she felt the mood shift, Sam's worry pointed inward now.

"What he's done to me? He's always been fair and honest with me."

Pryor's face was nothing but sympathy, "She told me he had you hunt down Bucky for eight months, ordered you around like he would a sl- a servant."

"That's not-" but it _was_ true. Steve gave commands, he followed them. _Drop me near the shipping container; fly around in expanding circles to look for Bucky; get Inessa out of the Tower; go with Nat to Battery Park; we're going to Clint's farm, make sure you pack; go home to the Tower and help me watch Bucky and Inessa; Get the door_ , all he could think of suddenly were the orders, the endless orders. Everything else was blocked. "He's our leader... he leads," his voice wasn't convincing in the least.

"Leader to the Avengers, but what about you? Inessa describes him _consulting_ with them, _commanding_ you. She says he dismisses most of your suggestions."

Sam was having trouble remembering any discussions he'd had with Steve. He always thought of them as friends, equals, "He's tired. He doesn't know he's doing it. Life's been rough, he's getting his footing. He's in a new world now."

"He's been here for five years. It isn't a new world, just a different time. A lot has changed since the 1940s, maybe his mind on certain people- certain _types_ of people- hasn't caught up yet. _He's_ in a different time, you're in a different world. Gods, beings of incredible power, and you're his errand boy, his babysitter. He doesn't share his burdens with the childhood friend he made you find, he puts all the work on you."

Sam looked down as he sat in a padded chair, "I'm an important member of this team."

"A super soldier, three in fact, an archer with binocular-vision, a super genius, a monster, a god, and a precious child like Inessa. Then there's you. A man with only metal wings to protect him, and yet do _they_ babysit? Do _they_ help? Do _they_ listen to your ideas? Or do they walk over you, demean you?

Normally Sam would know it was bull- everyone took turns helping with Inessa, Clint and Natasha did the most of anyone. The Avengers all helped one another, all supported one another (more or less). Suddenly though, Sam wasn't so sure anymore...

* * *

"Is the Dragon Lady gone?" Steve scouted the lobby before coming out of the stairwell. Pryor was gone, of course, but he was being sarcastic. Sam stood by the lobby door, head down, "You OK buddy? She get you?"

" _Buddy._ " Sam turned slowly, "That's rich. That's really rich."

"OK, hey-" Steve held up his hands, "I get it. You don't like 'buddy'." Sam glared at him with a ferocity Steve didn't understand, "I didn't mean anything bad. Lighten up, as the kids say." In _his_ day and age people said it, but occasionally over-emphasizing the difference in the time was just part of Steve's odd brand of humor.

"Is that an _order_ , sir?"

Steve frowned, "You OK? You seem... off."

"Sorry, sir," he was suddenly sarcastic, a manic light burned in his eyes, "How would you like me to be, _sir_? Funny, _sir_? Or maybe you'd prefer I didn't have a personality at all, _sir_?"

" _Normal_ would be a good start," Steve tapped his comm, not taking chances in case the Rager had gotten to his friend, "Bucky, can you come down here?"

Sam gasped, "Sorry, _sir_ , am I making you uncomfortable, _sir_?"

"Stop calling me 'sir'. Are you alright Sam?"

"My apologies, Mr. Rogers," he abruptly changed posture and tone to something overly proper and pronounced, "May I shine your shoes? Clean your apartment perhaps? How may I be of service?"

"Bucky- faster," Steve was almost positive- something had Sam, "Inessa, stay upstairs, lock the door."

"What's wrong?" she'd hurriedly finished putting on her pajamas and had a hand on the door.

"Just stay put!" he snapped harder than he meant to, "Sam, can we have a _civil_ discussion about what's bothering you?"

"What's bothering me?! What's bothering me is you and your _BULLSHIT_!" Sam stepped forward with an ugly snarl on his face.

Steve heard footsteps, slow and purposeful- Bucky. "Tell me about it- my bullshit. Say whatever you need to say. I'm all ears," he kept his voice low, calm, and moved away from the stairwell to give Bucky a clear path.

"Inessa, Pryor was here," Bucky came through the house speakers, she alone could hear him on the fourth floor, "Get her before she leaves."

She didn't wait for an explanation. Inessa walked straight into the nearest shadow and began opening windows from the Valley at random, searching both the building and the garage.

"You want a discussion? Why? So you can ignore what I have to say again?"

"Sam, I think whatever got Tony got to you too," Bucky cringed at Steve's words. He was invalidating Sam's anger. Even if it wasn't his own to start with, that was a _bad_ move.

"Oh? Another way my opinions get to be irrelevant! Fantastic!" he pulled a gun out of the back of his jeans and pointed it at Steve. So, Pryor had taken a walk with him to the armory, "How about now? Am I allowed to think now?" he fired, grazing Steve's hip, "What about now?" he fired again, but Bucky was already moving. He caught the second bullet (aimed for Steve's neck) with his metal arm and slammed into Sam, knocking him to the ground.

"INESSA, FORGET CATCHING HER, KILL HER!"

"What?"

"PSYCHICS ARE USELESS DEAD," he gritted his teeth and tried to keep a grip on Sam as he struggled, "JUST KILL THE BITCH!"

Inessa found movement in the garage. Pryor. She grabbed the Doctor, pulled her through the Valley, and dropped her in the middle of the lobby, "LET THEM GO! TONY AND SAM BOTH!" She was shouting before Pryor had time to process where she was, "LET THEM GO AND TELL US WHAT MORRIS IS PLANNING OR I SWEAR TO GOD-"

"Stupid little bitch! Sebastian Morris won't be stopped! He'll roll over you and the rest of this world without resistance. Sam will kill your leader or die trying, either way, _we_ win another point!"

Inessa grabbed the back of her neck and forced her to look at the chaos, "END THIS NOW!"

Pryor just smiled. Inessa had given her a fair shot- Steve saw it as he kept pressure on his hip and tried to figure out how to help Bucky. She was free to act now. Bucky, even wrestling with Sam, could see what was going to happen. Steve too- though he was too far away to stop it. Inessa's next instinct would be to kill- Hydra scraped the mercy right out of her and it was never more plain to the rest of the group than at that moment.

Steve cast a desperate look to his old friend. They had to protect Inessa, even from herself. Bucky threw everything into the gun hand and gave up trying to subdue the rest of Sam. He was kicked squarely in the groin, but still managed to turn the gun on Pryor and pull the trigger. A bullet hit her stomach and- suddenly- something blew her innards _outwards_.

Inessa's eyes widened as Pryor's body fell and blood sprayed all over her front. Her mouth fell open, but it wasn't the gore that stunned her.

The wall she'd built- _thought_ she'd built- between herself and the memories of Astana and the Winter Soldier's abuse flickered and vanished. It was laid out before her- all too present, and all too real. The rage that helped keep her mind clear cut away, even most of her desire to kill was gone. Shame at what she'd done, something she hadn't felt since coming to New York, overwhelmed her senses. It was matched only by the trauma of her past. She felt breathless, dazed.

Bucky rolled away from Sam and threw up on the plush carpeting. _What have I done? Oh god, oh god what did I do?_ He used Inessa. He exploited her weakness and made her kill with him. He pushed her in Hydra's direction and encouraged her to ignore her better instincts and bathe in blood. He took that spark of darkness he'd left in her soul and fanned it into a blinding flame. What kind of monster did that to a _child_?!

Sam stopped struggling almost immediately and lay in the middle of the floor, panting. Steve hobbled over and him to his feet, "Sam? Are you OK? Speak to me..."

"Wh-" he was winded. His mind was abruptly filling in what Pryor had been blanking out. Steve was his brother and his boss- never his enemy, not by any stretch of the imagination. How did he miss all that? How did he think _killing_ his best friend was right? "I- I'm... I'm alright. I'm fine."

"I believe Master Stark has returned," JARVIS opened the comm.

"What did I do?" Tony seemed anxious, "Loch Nessie? Are you OK? What- why..."

Steve rubbed his forehead with a shaking hand and slumped down from his crouch to sit on the floor. He stared at the doctor's body, "What the hell?"

Bucky was reeling as well. The rage intensified, but the bloodlust was waning. He just sat there, baffled. "We need to get to the farm," he mumbled.

"We're going to have to fight an army soon." Steve shook his head, "Maybe then the world will make sense..."

 

 


	31. Chapter 29: Natalia Romanova

**Chapter 29: Clint's Farmhouse - Menno, South Dakota**

"Look what I found." Natasha brought two pages in from the porch and tossed them on the table. All of the Avengers were back together- though tension was high. None of the New York group got any sleep after arriving late in the evening, ready for war and amped up on adrenaline. Even Inessa was given coffee with her breakfast (after JARVIS verified it wouldn't have any effect on her already stunted growth).

"Oh, gee, that's helpful," Sam grabbed a black marker and crossed off Pryor's face (several times). He set it in an open spot with the other pictures.

Steve picked up the other photograph and scanned it. No one he knew, "Schmidt. Probably linked to Red Skull in some way."

"Assume she's like me then," Natasha wrote "S.S." above her photograph- super soldier, "I'm betting an assassin."

Banner and Thor were murmuring between themselves, trying to find a way to stop Cul. The problem was they didn't know how many people he was drawing life and energy from, or where the hell they were. Once battle began, Thor would have to distract his uncle (praying all the while he wouldn't be taken as a slave) while someone tracked down the others and killed them all. So, pretty much cross your fingers and hope everyone's in one place and it's damn close.

Clint scribbled Sam's name on a post-it note and stuck it on Pryor's photo. "So Tony gets Schmidt?"

"Why me?" he complained.

"If it was me she'd be an archer or a sniper. Plus, if Pryor was trying to turn Nessie against us like she said - signed - then we know they want her alive, and this girl looks like a killer." Inessa had come clean with everything she knew or suspected about Pryor. To their credit, no one argued with her or snapped at her and Bucky for keeping it a secret- they understood the call she'd made.

Steve snapped a picture of Sinthea's photograph and texted it to Mallory- maybe SHIELD had something on her. Natasha caught Inessa's eye and waved her down the hall. "I'm taking Nessa for a project."

"Don't go far."

Once they got to the living room Natasha turned Inessa and put her hands on the girl's slumped shoulders, "I have a big favor to ask of you, and I really can't let you say no."

 _Anything_ , Inessa's mind was still swirling. She felt dizzy, disjointed, and didn't entirely trust herself to not puke if she opened her mouth, so she signed instead. She'd focused so hard on stopping Pryor from skewing her perception of the Avengers, she'd left her mind open to even worse manipulations. Pryor desensitized Inessa to killing Hydra agents, even helped her _enjoy_ the grim mission. Guilt weighed her down thanks to that, and the fact that she'd dragged Bucky along- ruined all the progress he'd tried to make in distancing himself from his Winter Soldier urges... She was guilty in more ways than the Avengers could understand.

Natasha could tell something bothered the girl, but she didn't have time to ask her about it, not with such a delicate mission desperately needed, "When you were trying to figure out if we were the good guys or the bad guys, you got inside our heads."

 _Yes_.

"I need you to do it again, but this time I want you to dig deep. Deep as you can. I can't remember Albatross or Schmidt and I've tried _everything_. I need to know who he is and what happened between us." Inessa hesitated, "I know it's a lot to ask, and it's not a normal way for you to use your power, but it would give me an advantage. A significant one."

An _insignificant_ advantage would be monumental at the moment. They were so lost- maybe it wasn't actually a bad idea to at least _try_ to solve this corner of the puzzle.

_I'll try. I don't know if it will hurt you._

Natasha breathed a sigh of relief, "I'm willing to take that risk. If you find it and I still can't remember when you're done, you'll have to talk me through it, ok?" Inessa nodded and Natasha led her into the study, where the others wouldn't see. From a shelf above the computer she retrieved a small box- inside was Thor's extra healing stone. Natasha sat down on the recliner while Inessa pulled over a chair. She took the stone out and held it tightly in her hand- just in case. "Don't look at everything," she said just as black smoke began to roll down Inessa's arms, "there's stuff in there no one should ever have to see. Just find the beginning and the end, got it?"

 _Yes_.

"You speak Russian, right?" Natasha had never asked.

_Yes. Fluently._

"Good, you'll need it." Natasha took a deep breath to calm her nerves, "You ready?"

 _I think so_.

"It's as good a time as any to find out."

Inessa only knew one way to enter Natasha's mind- through Nadya. The study was dark enough that it wouldn't be a problem, but the last time she'd entered the Avengers minds it had been incredibly taxing- she didn't have _time_ to do more than guess their general intentions. Inessa reached out and put a hand on Natasha's forehead. She had to try to do this without turning into the Shadow first- maybe then she would be strong enough.

She followed the shadows around Natasha. Her mind was alien- full of thoughts and direction. It was like trying to force her way through a brick wall. She kept pushing and prodding, but she couldn't find a way to look through Natasha's mind, it was just too full. Inessa started to get a headache behind her eyes as if she'd kept them crossed too long. "Nessie, back out a second." Inessa did as she was told. Natasha opened her eyes and pointed at the desk, "Middle drawer. Bring it to me."

Natasha's drawer contained a thin wooden box the length of Inessa's forearm. She handed it to her friend who pulled from it a glass syringe filled with a white, milky substance. Natasha held it up, "This is a particularly potent neural toxin that was given to me when I passed my training in the Red Room. If it ever looks like a Black Widow agent will be taken, they inject themselves with this. You can't get information out of a corpse." she pulled off the cap and injected it into her arm quickly, "If it really is eighty years old, it'll be too weak to do more than make me very very sick," she clutched the stone tighter as the edges of her vision went black. "Do it... now..."

Inessa rushed at Natasha and grabbed her head in both hands as her friend's eyes rolled up. She pushed into the mind, desperate. Everything was quieting, slowing. She found a lull in the activity and forced the shadows rolling off of her into Natasha- allowing herself to be pulled in the process.

* * *

The woman knew more about torture than anyone should.

Inessa shared Natasha's memories in flashes and starts. Most of what she saw was either trivial (simple chores like mending torn socks or what to do if your subject has a heart attack during water boarding), brutal (knife holding techniques depending on how deeply you're trying to cut), or downright embarrassing to witness (Clint featured _prominently_ here, unfortunately for Inessa, his clothes did not).

When she first entered the Avengers' minds, Inessa simply thought of the _cub_ , as the Shadow had thought of the body, and saw what reaction to the face the others might have. Mostly what she got were protective instincts and sincere concern. She tried something similar with Natasha and pictured the video reel- ancient footage of Natasha and Albatross. She tried to force the image to move- spin around so she could see the camera recording it- and for a brief second she was rewarded. Everything solidified, went from imagination to reality, then snapped back with a sudden onslaught of screams and fire. There was a wall of pain burying the memories, propped up by a glass wall that reeked of a psychic's interference.

 _Please_ , Inessa needed this to progress quickly, she could help Natasha, but not until she found what they needed. She summoned up the image again and this time, when the screams and the fire slammed into her she pushed back with her own horrors- fed the flames with her own. She looked at the child that was Natasha Romanoff and grabbed onto the memory tightly. She felt something slip back, the glass cracked, and a flood of memories washed over her.

* * *

"Natalia, my dear little one, your papa and mama have gone to heaven and you must make your own way there soon," a kind old priest blessed her so that she may pass through the golden gates soon. The child's breath was coming in rasps and blood stained the edges of her mouth- consumption, tuberculosis, whatever the scholars were calling it these days- it was still going to destroy yet another family. All the girl knew was that the hard life of the cold and the poor would be over, and she would be somewhere magical- filled with angels and all things soft and beautiful. She just had to be patient.

"Excuse me, father, may I sit with the child a moment?" her eyes drifted open to see a kind-faced man. He spoke with a slight accent- maybe he was from St. Petersburg? Natalia had never met someone from a city, that must be it.

The father nodded, "She will be with God soon. Though, Doctor Erskine, if there is anything you can do to postpone that merry meeting I am sure the Allmighty would understand."

"I'll do what I can," Erskine smiled kindly at the priest and looked down at the little girl. "Oh my, what's this?" he pulled out a handkerchief and dabbed at the corners of her mouth, "Are you feeling unwell little Natalia?"

She just nodded, but the motion made her sore throat feel like it was made of dry paper. She tried to cough to clear the strange feeling, but that only set off a whole fit of them. Natalia could hardly get air in before the next cough forced her lungs to empty. She gasped, choked, coughed until more blood came up and out of her mouth. The blood, strangely enough, helped ease the urge to cough. She gulped down precious air, hot all over and with a painful throbbing in her head and chest. After a moment she became aware of Erskine holding her and rubbing her back- just like her father had done whenever she got a cold.

Once it was clear the episode was through he gently settled her back onto the cot in the over-filled quarantine hospital. There was sickness everywhere, half the patients in the room were likely dead- just no one had noticed quite yet. Erskine though only had eyes for her. "I can make you better, Natalia, if you will let me. No more hurting, no more gasping. I made something that will help you heal, maybe help all of them heal."

"I go to heaven soon," her voice was raspy, thin. "I will ask God or his angels to help everyone."

Erskine leaned in as if he were sharing a secret, "God is a very busy man, as are his angels. The world is going mad again, you know." She didn't know what he was talking about, but she nodded as if she did. "I want to help him. If everyone who goes to heaven asks him to look in on the sick, he would always be busy. Instead of this he sends people like me- we help in this life so God may protect the good people from other bad things. Do you understand?"

"I think so, sir."

"Good girl," he patted her head. "God made it my duty to help as best I can. I would like to do that, but I will need your help in this. A simple procedure. It may hurt- it may send you to heaven even faster, but if it helps you it can be something glorious." What burned in his eyes looked like fever to little Natalia.

"It will help God? It will help everyone?"

"Yes, precious one. I believe it will."

She nodded bravely and resisted the urge to cough, "I will do my very best."

* * *

Everything about the machine terrified Natalia, but she had to be brave, like her new friend Thomas Morton. She enjoyed the company of the silly foreigner who called himself Albatross- and his stories of life on the open sea. His friends gave him the nickname, as it turned out, because he always brought good luck to their journeys. They knew if he was on the crew that nothing bad would ever happen, so long as they kept him nearby.

Erskine's scary partner, Johann Schmidt, found him in a prison. His captain on the last voyage was ambitious and greedy- he took money from his men and took risks with their lives more often than necessary- so Albatross led a group to throw him overboard and rid themselves of the blight. Someone had told the authorities instead of keeping it a secret and so he and many of his friends were to be hung- before Schmidt came along. They needed someone healthy and someone gravely ill for their test, and so when they had gone to meet with investors abroad, each scientist would find one subject, such was their mission.

Albatross went into the large, metal coffin first. He'd screamed so loud Natalia could hear him several rooms away where she lay on a rolling cart. Erskine had left her to view the procedure with some big, scary men, leaving her alone to imagine what horrible things must be happening to make her cheerful friend suffer so greatly. After twenty minutes they brought him in, dazed and exhausted, and rolled her out too.

She had to stand while a man with some sort of camera-device looked at her. The action was too strenuous- she began coughing again. That mixed with the fear from what she'd already heard- Natalia began to cry. Erskine rushed over to his little friend to dab at the blood. Schmidt told the camera-wielding boy to stop and give the child some privacy.

He resumed filming once she stepped into the machine. It was even scarier on the inside. Huge needles pierced her skin before the doors even closed. She tried to scream from the pain and the fear, but her lungs were too damaged. She choked and sputtered and strained to get any amount of air in. The machine felt like it was pressing back against her. Her muscles began to ache, then burn. Her bones popped and ligaments stretched unnaturally. She felt a strange sucking sensation in her stomach as she grew longer.

Something slammed into her chest- or felt like it did- forcing what little air she had out of her lungs. Natalia knew then she would die. Strange- the peace she had felt lying in the church with the nice Father standing over her and the cross hanging on the wall was gone- all she had now was fear of death, a desire to live, no matter the cost. A sharp, shrill scream suddenly filled her ears, making her jump slightly. It took several for her to realize that was her own voice she was hearing. Her lungs filled powerfully, she felt no discomfort, no pain.

Weakness began to drain from her, the agony of her burning bones and skin seeped away. Natalia had always been taught to _survive_ , no matter the cost. She felt like iron now- strong. Surviving would be easy.

Erskine's was the first face she saw when the machine doors opened. He helped her step out with her new muscles. She looked down at herself- at her new body.

She wasn't frail or weak or scared anymore, the machine burned that all away. She was mighty, she invincible, she was _powerful_.

She was Natalia Romanova, and she was going to make her presence on the earth _felt_.

* * *

All Natalia wanted to do was learn her new body. She began to fight with Albatross daily, each of them comparing their strength against one another. It surprised her how evenly matched they were- he a fully grown man, she a young child. Erskine wanted her to stay in the medical room for test after endless test, but she wanted to _do_ things. Run, race, fight, climb, dance- anything she couldn't do before was heavenly. Unfortunately for Erskine, sitting in a medical room was something she did quite a lot of before he met her and bit by bit she began to resent his infuriating caution.

Schmidt tried the machine out on himself one night while Erskine slept- the results were disastrous. He came out deformed, incomplete- a caricature of himself. Albatross and Natalia were no longer superior to him- he decided his transformation meant then that _he_ was superior to _them_. Erskine offered to take Natalia with him when he fled, but she refused. She was curious what Schmidt might be- was he really nearing equal footing to a god, as he claimed? Did that make her an angel?

It didn't take long for Schmidt to realize his abilities were actually somewhat limited compared to Natalia and Albatross- and so he sent them away. She went to the Red Room to train. She never knew where Albatross was sent. She didn't thrive in the Red Room, she died in an entirely new way. Her survival instinct became everything- all she was and all she could be. The brutality was astounding- and she astounded in turn with how quickly she adapted.

Albatross came to visit from time to time over the years. After she graduated from the Red Room- became a fully fledged Black Widow agent- Schmidt was gone and she was given to the KGB- Albatross too. He was more creative with his killings than she, but no one surpassed Natalia at interrogations. She could wind her way through anyone's mind without raising suspicions, double-talk them into any kind of confession.

Years rolled by- bloody, cold, hard. Natalia let the iron turn to steel, the steel to diamond. There was no mercy left in her, not for friends  _or_ enemies. She went back once, destroyed the Red Room and its children merely because it felt good to do so. Now she wasn't _a_ Black Widow. She was _the_ Black Widow.

* * *

They were selling her off. Natalia, now Natasha, paced the little cell where she slept and waited for the final confirmation. Some other group- something linked to Schmidt- had made the KGB an offer they could not refuse. It was becoming evident the USSR was going to collapse, a new Russia would be born, and no one wanted to see the KGB's great weapon handed over to their enemies in a show of peace. Natasha was at the birth of the USSR, now she would stand over it's death.

When the door to her cell opened she nearly pounced, "Well? What is the decision?"

Her commander chuckled, "You know, it never ceases to surprise me- that tone coming out of such a young lady."

"Want to see what the _young lady_ can bring out of you?" Natasha was somewhat sensitive about her appearance. True- a child got in most places no one else could, but it also limited her significantly. Erskine's damn serum had locked her in the body of an elementary-school child for all eternity. Most of the time she just killed people who looked at her as her commander did now- even her own allies.

"Relax. I've found someone who may be able to help you," he waved in someone from the hall.

A wrinkly old man wandered in, slightly lost. Natasha's skin crawled just looking at him. He had an ill look to him, his coloring was off and he was so greasy Natasha just knew if she touched his arm he'd probably be sticky. She breathed slowly to avoid the inevitable stench. "Stephan here is a very smart man with a very unique ability. He can touch someone and use their life to wind back his own clock. Your new handlers aren't particularly keen on your _visage_ either. They are loaning Stephan to us with the understanding he will help you advance, you will help him buy more time on this earth, and we all part as friends."

"So he _will_ have to touch me?" No amount of showering was going to make that go away any time soon.

"Just sit there silently, Widow." her commander glared. He didn't particularly like his best asset. Maybe Hydra could put her up against their Winter Soldier- see who walked out of the sparring ring alive.

Natasha did as she was told, but she fixed her supervisor with a cold glare. The man, Stephan, put a hand on her neck and she shivered. Natasha had hoped for a single finger. At least she was wrong about him being sticky- he was just cold. Her ears popped and quite suddenly she felt like her skin was drying out. Natasha's clothes became unbearably tight and she hardly had time to grab the pillow from beside her and cover her front with it before the fabric ripped and shredded. It felt too much like when she'd grown in the machine. That, however, had been a matter of inches. This was a matter of _feet_.

"That's enough, Stephan. Our deal is complete." the hand vanished from her neck. Natasha had expected something more dramatic, but when she pulled the pillow away and looked down she couldn't argue with the results. She stretched an arm out experimentally. It was longer, that was for sure, but her movements still felt practiced, trained. She'd have to learn to adapt for her increased range and size. "Well, put these on," the commander threw some women's clothes on the cot next to her, "you belong to Hydra now."

"I'm no longer KGB?" her voice was deeper, different. It sounded alien.

"No, so get out of our base, quick as you like."

Natasha had something else in mind, something to pay back the commander for ten years of snide remarks and thinly veiled insults. She threw the pillow up at his face, then used the distraction to slam the heel of her foot into his head. She felt something crunch through the fabric and the cotton. Natasha kept kicking, following him as he stumbled back against the wall, trying to shout but not getting anywhere. She didn't stop until the pillow was thoroughly saturated with his blood. The (slightly less) old man went down with a broken neck- she didn't give him time to drain any more youth from her with his hands.

"What kind of trouble can I get in now?" she was done _surviving_ , she was ready to live and have a bit of fun.

* * *

One day she was comfortably freelancing her services to anyone with enough cash to pay, the next she was calling her old friend Albatross, someone she hadn't seen in over a decade, asking for his help. Natasha couldn't quite remember why, something was very wrong. She wandered around an unknown city trying to remember how she got there, where it even was. The diamond core that made her strong felt weaker. Survival was her first instinct, but there was something else there, something thin and frail- not quite hope, but not quite _not_.

Great. A psychic.

Natasha had hunted one or two over the years- always as a preemptive measure. The bastards got into your head and planted ideas that weren't yours, or they were yours and you had no time for them at the moment. She kept them at bay with knives- but somehow one had gotten close enough to mess with her mind without her noticing. She cursed her own stupidity. In whatever state the brain-fiddling bastard had put her she'd at least had presence of mind to call on reinforcements. Natasha buried herself in the deepest, darkest corner of the city she could find, sealed the basement of the old church, and waited. Albatross would find her no matter how she tried to secret herself away- he always had.

No new thoughts crept up on her in the hours she hid in the basement. There was no sign of the psychic- but he had to be nearby. Once Albatross came they'd hunt him down together and put an end to it- then find someone to interrogate, the violent way this time. She couldn't torture a psychic- they were far too dangerous, but she could have fun with a normal run-of-the-mill intelligence officer.

"Natasha?" the voice that whispered through the walls was familiar and comforting. Natasha smiled and removed her blockade so Albatross could enter. He took one look at her and knew, "Psychic?"

"Psychic."

Albatross smiled, "And I thought Belgium would be boring this time of the year. How shall we-" Natasha didn't remember pulling out the knife. Or the first stab. She barely realized what she was doing in time to see the blade slam into his heart, having already punctured both lungs with her other two blows. Albatross looked stunned- but not nearly as surprised as she felt.

The psychic hadn't lost sight of her, he'd been biding his time. Every murder, every kill, every dark deed spun back on her, but this time the psychic injected what had been stripped away from little Natalia all those years ago- Horror. Disgust. Shame.

She abandoned Albatross to die in her haste to find the psychic before he caused further damage- her old friend may be able to survive the killing blows. By the time she ran out of the church into the light of day though the memories were gone. She blinked hard, lost. An extraction missed? It must have been. Who was she supposed to have killed?

A safe house. She needed to get to a safe house until she figured things out. Not a KGB one- they were monsters. Unfeeling, cruel, she didn't want that anymore. She felt a sudden, overwhelming urge to help- it partially sickened her, partially galvanized her. Could she kill and still be better than those bastards who trained her? The things they'd done- to children no less!

* * *

"Charles, you are an amazing man indeed," Clint patted his friend on the shoulder and watched the nefarious Black Widow wandering off down a city street.

"I don't like stripping anyone's mind, but in this case..." he smiled a cheeky smile, "In this case perhaps an exception _was_ warranted."

"Junior Agent Coulson," he spoke into his radio to his team on the ground, "fetch the other dude. Fury'll want to chat with him before he goes into lockup."

"You're just as Junior as I am, and he's _Assistant Director_ Fury."

"Oh my god, someone _literally_ brought a rule book to life, didn't they? Lighten up!" Clint liked his SHIELD academy roommate, but he was a pain sometimes.

"The mission was to bring in the suspected ex-KGB agent Black Widow, why is there another body in the church and she's just wandering off?"

Clint rolled his eyes, "Because Charles lost at poker and he said if I didn't kill her, I didn't have to pay up. Maybe she can be an ally instead of an enemy, ever think of that?"

The shapes of the men were indistinct, fuzzy. Natasha hadn't seen this event play out, but she'd heard enough stories that she'd built a framework of the memory. This was the end of what she wanted Inessa to see. She'd never betrayed Albatross- not willingly- and her memories certainly _were_ buried, but by this other psychic, an ally of SHIELD, and one of the few she counted as a friend. That status was probably going to change a bit.

* * *

Inessa extracted herself from Natasha's memories. Her own mind was reeling. She couldn't focus. When she found her eyes again she saw how pale her friend was, remembered the toxin. She couldn't open a window into the Valley- her original plan for helping cure Natasha of the poison was to pull her through and leave the foreign element behind, but she sensed the trip into Natasha's mind had taken too long, it was too dispersed within her blood for that to work anymore.

After Pryor's attack, Inessa had insisted on a comm device of her own. She put a finger on the thin cut in her jaw that marked the implant and kept tapping, opening and closing every channel aimlessly (since she barely had the presence of mind to see where she was). Eventually Clint was annoyed enough to come check on them.

It turned out Clint kept an antidote to the poison nearby- unknown to Natasha. She was going to be just fine in a half hour or so. Inessa stared at the same point on the carpet the entire time, hardly blinking. Just like when he had first rejoined her body after her five year absence it was going to take some time to settle back in to her own memories and thoughts. She felt slightly nauseous.

Clint didn't know what the two had been up to, but he had a good idea. He went back to the kitchen and fetched Inessa's cup of coffee- now cold. "Speaking as someone who's done the mind-warp thing, trust me. Caffeine helps." Inessa took the cup and gulped it down in one shot. "Speaking as someone who's done that as well, trust me. It'll hurt in ten minutes."

It was worth the headache, the dizziness, and the confusion, even if the memories didn't help Natasha fight Albatross. At least she would know now what kind of past she had. Not the edited version the Psychic left her, the entire picture.

Peace of mind. That was advantage enough.

* * *

**Author Note:**

Yes, "Charles" is Charles Xavier.  
No, there will be _no_ X-Men and no more Xavier anywhere "Project Echo", I needed a psychic and he came to mind, just like with Jean Gray earlier :)

__


	32. Chapter 30: The Final Piece

**Chapter 30: Clint's Farmhouse**

Everything was beginning to feel better by the end of the hour for both ladies. Inessa's head stopped spinning, Natasha was sitting up, and both girl's coloring was nearly back to normal. Clint and Banner sat with them until Inessa moved to the living room couch to try and sleep the confusion off.

"That was reckless. We could have gotten sedatives from the med suits if you wanted to be knocked out that bad." Clint snapped without much venom. She'd scared the living daylights out him, he was allowed to be upset.

Natasha smiled and rubbed the back of his hand with her thumb, "I didn't want to worry everyone, so I kept it quiet. I knew the poison wouldn't kill me anyways."

"You _hoped_ it wouldn't."

"I hoped it wouldn't." She conceded the point.

"Did it at least help? Do you remember him?"

"I do."

"Well?"

"It's not as bad as I was thinking it'd be, but it's not great. A _lot_ more of the same stuff I've always known about. Charles never told you he pinned so much back, did he?"

Clint shook his head with a wry smile, "Cheeky brat only ever said he undid your programming, gave you a shot. We knew you were good at what you did, we didn't know how _old_ , _ancient_ , and _shriveled_ you are."

Natasha punched him lightly in the arm, ignoring the soreness in her own elbow at the motion. "The man you had Coulson pull out of the church-"

"Your old handler? Thomas- something, right? British dude."

Natasha nodded, "Yeah, my _old-old_ friend. Albatross."

"Seriously?!" Clint was stunned, "That's- wow. We never even suspected he was anything more than a contact."

She nodded, "Me neither. I haven't thought about that guy in years, and what Charles did probably kept me from recognizing his picture. Still- we have an advantage now."

"Remember a critical weakness?"

"Not that great of an advantage. I fought alongside Albatross on and off for a long time. I trained with him the first year or two, but I was a child."

"What do you mean?"

"I never aged! I was ten years old, give or take, for _decades_. They got someone to fix that before I was sold to _Hydra_."

Clint winced, "Oh, Charles should have left one or two things out in the open..."

"Yeah, might have been helpful knowledge. Anyway, Albatross has never fought me this size," she shrugged, "It might be useful to us. He isn't at a complete advantage."

"Oh, he's still at a complete advantage." Clint clarified, "Just not an all-encompassing one."

"We'll make it," Natasha felt a surge of confidence, from where she couldn't tell, "we always do."

Clint nodded, "We still have time to figure it out at least. Morris still needs to find me an enemy, maybe another one for Sam."

The confidence vanished. "Clint," her voice was low, almost pleading, "he might have someone already. Like you said- an archer or a sniper. Fury wouldn't be able to get an image of them. We can't rely solely on the photographs."

"Nat, what's wrong?" Even as she tried to mask her expression he could see the faintest glimmer of anxiety. "You can tell me anything. What is it?"

"I can't-"

Her nerves were making _him_ anxious, "You know who he got for me, don't you?" he leaned back away from her, distanced himself so his enhanced vision could analyze her face more completely. "Nat, who is it?" she shook her head, trying to sort out her confused brain so she could slam the lid tight on everything. Clint grabbed her hand again, "If the first time I'm seeing my enemy is when I'm fighting them, surprise could kill me. I never go in blind Nat. If I'd known the guy from Belgium was Albatross you _know_ I would have said something. We don't keep secrets, you and I."

"If he's a sniper you won't see him, that's the point."

"You're willing to bet my life on that?" Clint let it hang in the air over their heads. His mind wracked through everyone he knew. When possible, Morris went for personal enemies- he couldn't think of a single one. His enemies tended to die before they even knew his face.

He gave Natasha a full minute to speak. She didn't. "Where are the other photographs?" she just shook her head, jaw locked, "There  _must_ be more. Where?" Natasha still didn't answer. Clint nodded to himself, "Inessa?" he called from the study. Banner shook her arm and she rolled over on the couch to look at Clint. "Do you know who Morris got to fight me?"

 _Yes_.

"Nessa, keep quiet." Clint silenced Natasha with a look. She fought her stiff muscles and got to her feet. "Don't drag her into this." she went to the window and yanked up the sill, exposing a gap between the window and the wall.

"Thanks for telling me that's broken."

Natasha retrieved a thin folder marked with her hourglass, identical to the others. She held it against her chest protectively, "Fury told me to never tell you. It was my first mission with SHIELD, we barely trusted each other. We weren't a team yet, let alone... Someone was tracking you, and they made it very clear they'd kill you before you ever knew they were there. I took them down, brought them in... I couldn't tell you. After we started getting closer I hoped I'd never have to."

"So tell me now and we'll deal with it," he whispered. Natasha held out the folder reluctantly, like she was giving him something precious. Or something lethal.

Clint hesitated, then took the folder. He opened it immediately. The blurry man looked painfully familiar, but the mark on his cheek more than anything gave him away. His first kill- a horrific accident. In trying to avenge his mentor's death, he fired an arrow at a petty gang leader. He killed a guard instead. Or at least thought he did.

In a fight to the death, Sebastian Morris had chosen the cruelest opponent for Clint to face- someone he could never willingly hurt. His baby brother.

"Berny?"

 

 


	33. Chapter 31: Berny Barton

**Chapter 31: Sebastian Morris' Base - Menno, South Dakota**

"Trusting a man to kill his own brother," Sin eyed Berny and shook her head. He was busy prepping the vials of gray serum, but he still caught her in his periphery.

Berny flashed her a sarcastic smile and went back to work. Albatross and Ryker made the same fuss initially, he was used to it. Any second one of his new allies would- "There is no love between them, I assure you." _there_. He silently thanked Albatross.

"If I thought there was I would have killed him by now," Sin continued to sharpen her knives- though where she was pulling all of them from was anyone's guess. "There is a large gap between not loving someone and killing them. Morris is putting too much faith in a feud between siblings."

"He didn't break my favorite toy," Berny said calmly, "he shot me in the face, left me for dead, and killed most of my friends. He's as much an enemy to me as Natasha Romanoff or Bruce Banner are to Albatross and the good General there," he nodded to John, reading as always.

Sin set down her blade and faced Berny. He finished mixing the syringes- taking very specific quantities from each vial. Once he finished he set them down with the utmost care and faced her as well, "Are we gonna fight or have sex because one won't fly with our employer and the other he just might want to watch."

"I would prefer neither, if you please." 

"Aw, c'mon Albatross. We can't let you be the only one having fun with the super-women."

Albatross' eyebrows arched, "Just what are you implying?"

"You knew Romanoff a very long time and she is, soon to be was, a _very_ lovely lady. Surely you at least got a taste." he winked.

"She had the physical appearance of a ten year old, and the last time I saw her she'd aged nearly twenty years then promptly stabbed me three times. No, we were never intimate in any way."

"Bummer."

"We were talking about you and your brother, not the sexual history of some two-bit assassins." Sin glared at Albatross for humoring Berny.

"Those assassins are older than you, and they weren't frozen when Schmidt died." John spoke up again, "Respect your elders."

Berny faced Sin full-on, "If you want the story, fine. Just listen carefully because it's the last time _I_ humor _you_. Then, if you still don't trust me, kill me. But make sure you have a damn good excuse for Morris and his boss."

"All I expect is truth," Sin smiled dangerously.

"Gather round kiddos," he said sarcastically, "it's story time."

"I dislike reruns, no offense," Albatross excused himself and left to find Cul. At least around him it tended to be quieter.

"Once upon a time, in the magical land of Nebraska..."

* * *

Marco didn't like thieves. Well- thieves who didn't work for him. When the guards found Trickshot, Clint's old mentor, sneaking around back anyone could see where it was going to end. A bullet through the face. Berny, only 14, sighed as the man was dragged in. He was the junior-most member of Marco's small crew. He would be the one cleaning up.

 _Bang_ _!_ Berny began pulling off his suit jacket, best get started. He heard something though- a shuffle from the wrong direction, somewhere above them. Surely Trickshot wasn't stupid enough to bring a _deaf_ boy along for a heist-

He was exactly that stupid, sanctimonious old fool. Berny turned and shoved Marco as hard as he could- knowing full well if he was wrong his brains would join Trickshot's on the walls.

An explosion of pain wracked his skull almost immediately. He tried to cry out- his mouth was open- but he couldn't move his face. The agony was ungodly. He fell, turning as he did to see Clint staring down from a skylight, gaping. Marco's men opened fire and he fled.

Berny tried to feel the damage, his mouth hurt so much, there was too much blood. He gurgled and tried to get a full breath, close his mouth, anything. One of Marco's bodyguards puked nearby. When Berny's hand found the shaft of the arrow, he knew why.

It had pierced just below his left cheekbone, blasted through bone, gum, and the roof of his mouth, destroying a full section of his teeth. The arrow held his mouth open and continued down at a sharp angle, pinning down the corner of his tongue, more teeth and gums on the lower right side, and finally it emerged out of the edge of his jaw and through his neck.

He felt sick.

He felt cold.

Then it all went black.

* * *

Wherever Marco had him taken, it wasn't a normal hospital. The doctors both wore odd logos on their coats- a red octopus with a human skull. He woke long after the surgeries to repair his face and begin reassembling his teeth. Over the years he'd go on to have nearly a dozen surgeries and as many false teeth grafted in.

"Subject is waking up," the doctor was pretty, young. She had long, dark hair that swung down almost far enough to touch Berny's face as she leaned over him. When she spoke, it was with an accent he couldn't place- European certainly. She smiled at him and he tried his best to smile back. His jaw was wired shut, and most of his face and neck were bandaged. What he managed looked more like a grimace.

"Stay calm, it's-" a young male doctor came over and muttered something in what sounded like Russian.

"Alright," the woman translated. "We are doctors. You're in a Hydra field hospital on the way to Alaska."

Berny thought at first the shifting and swaying of the room was something to do with painkillers. Now he saw it all for what it was- the hospital was made up of shipping containers on some boat.

"Your employer pulled a few strings to bring you here. He said to tell you he always rewards loyalty. You will meet with him once we reach port."

"Is there any way I would be let to persuade you having _improved_ jawbone?" the man's grasp of English wasn't the greatest.

"Anton!" the girl snapped, "I told you already. He is not Hydra. We do not augment, only heal!"

"Emilia," he switched back to Russian to plead his case but she put a hand up.

"I'm medical doctor. You are _scientific_ doctor. This patient is mine, not yours." 

"I am bored! They bring me no projects here!"

"If you ever want to get to Astana you will have to learn to survive boredom! Winter Soldier is being deployed. He will rendezvous with us in Alaska for diagnostics after his mission. Play then!"

Anton merely grumbled and vanished from Berny's sight to an adjacent lab, "He is new," Emilia said, as if that explained everything.

Berny was kept comfortable for the remainder of the journey, but he had far too much time on his hands to drown in the dull, constant throbbing of his jaw and the memory of Clint's face. He'd spoiled the side job Swordsman and Berny had going, and now his mothering older brother actually tried to _kill_ him! The ass had everything going for him- athleticism, good looks, even super-peepers! Sure he'd been stone deaf since the car accident, but his binocular vision made up for that pretty fucking well in Berny's book. He was always inferior to Clint, and he was sick to death of it.

Emilia- Emilie in English- kept him company and monitored his healing. He couldn't speak with his jaw wired shut (the few times he tried he sounded just like that asshole Clint), so she carried the weight of the conversation. He caught Anton sneaking glances every now and then. Berny was only 14, but he recognized a crush, especially since Anton didn't seem to have any grasp of subtlety.

After a few days Berny waved goodbye and was taken by skiff across a narrow channel to a waiting car. An especially terrifying man in a mask with a metal arm took his place on the boat and Berny took his in the vehicle. The drive was short- Marco was waiting for him in the restaurant of a cheesy hotel, the 'Prospector Inn'. Damned place was one of the tallest buildings in the city at only 5 stories. Berny sat nervously across from his boss and waited patiently for him to speak.

"I wanted to express my gratitude to you, Berny- I believe that is your name?" Berny nodded slightly. "You risked your life to protect mine. That's loyalty of an impressive caliber. Anything you want you will have. Money, position, twenty stunning hookers and a week in Vegas- at your age that probably sounds the most attractive, yes?"

A goon handed Berny a pencil and a pad of paper to write his reply. _I want to repay my brother_ , he pointed to the bandages on his face.

"I'll have my men fetch him for you."

Berny tapped the table as Marco turned to get his attention. _Can't. He'll know you are coming. He has abilities_ , he pointed to his eyes.

"The world is seeing more and more of these freaks," Marco mumbled to himself. He considered it for a moment. He could use a kid like Berny. "I know low people in high places. They may be able to help you. My operations are far larger than you know, Berny. Serve me, and as your reward I will help you become powerful as well. Then I will see that you meet your brother again and _guarantee_ you will get to pluck those special eyes right out of his head."

Berny considered it for as long as it took to pick the pencil back up. _Done_.

* * *

Nearly a decade passed. Marco was the mastermind behind seemingly unrelated gangs all over the globe- a true emperor of crime. He helped Berny meet researchers, participate in dozens of experiments. Most didn't stick, but the ones that did not only brought him on-par with his brother, they took him even further. Suddenly though, his new friends began to fall. Marco went first- it was dismissed as gang violence. Next was Ivanovich, Castro, Hidaki, Chau, Rodriguez- someone was cleaning house and the upper echelon were on the target list. Berny too.

He saw them well before he was anywhere near visible to their _average_ eyesight- men in suits and tactical gear bearing an eagle crest. He pushed his eyes to their limits to read the fine text around the outside of the icon- Strategic Homeland Intervention and Enforcement Logistics Division- SHIELD. They were the ones responsible for him losing his friends- the only family he recognized.

So Berny hunted SHIELD. At first it was sloppy guesswork- which associates they might go after. Like Marco, he quickly made low friends in high places. He eventually managed to track them with a certain degree of accuracy. He followed the heels of a trainee team to Belgium after some female assassin- but all he noticed was their leader.

Berny was a mile away using his enhanced vision to watch some guy and a cripple in a wheelchair scouting out a church from the roof of an adjacent building. The leader turned to watch as the assassin ran out of the church, stopped, and wandered down a side street. Berny's vision went red as soon as he saw the man's face. "Of course," he breathed. SHIELD was ruining his life and killing his friends- naturally among their ranks would be Clint _fucking_ Barton. Sanctimonious piece of shit.

Berny barely resisted killing him then- he didn't have the tools he'd need- a bow or a sniper rifle. Clint would only finish what he started so long ago. Berny's face twinged with phantom pain. He needed the last serum- a sort of catalyst to take his powers to the next level. Then he'd be ready to eradicate the cancer that was his brother.

* * *

"Well? What next?" Sin waited.

Berny just shrugged, "One more year finding the drugs. Then I tucked it away somewhere safe until I could track down Clint again. One minute I'm sitting in a nice little Italian restaurant, the next thing I know I'm electrocuted and Clint's little assassin wench is throwing me into a cell. I had most of Marco's empire under my control, Clint could only evade my spies for a week, two tops, I had the last little push I needed to beat him," he held up the syringes, "then I'm rotting in a dark, cold cell that would make people in the stone age feel right at home. All because of Clint's girlfriend."

He waited to see if Sin was satisfied. She said nothing, but picked up her knife once again and went back to sharpening the blade. Ryker glanced over and shrugged. Berny rolled his eyes and settled back in the chair. He'd changed his mind- sex with this woman was out of the question. He wanted to fight the smug brat.

 _Save it for Clint_.

* * *

 


	34. Chapter 32: The Eve of Battle

**Chapter 32: Clint's Farmhouse**

"Yelling isn't going to solve anything!"

"Oh SHOVE IT UP YOUR ASS, STEVE!"

"Clint, we can't do this right now, chill!"

"CHILL?!" his face was brick red. Inessa had jumped off the couch and skittered away when the rampage briefly was directed at her (Nat accidentally ratted her out as a co-conspirator), that was ten minutes ago. "CHILL?! Steve, you even know what Berny's death did to me- and SHE'S BEEN LETTING ME SUFFER FOR OVER FIFTEEN YEARS!" he pointed at Natasha, too angry to look at her, "SHE EVEN DRAGGED NESSIE DOWN WITH HER BY MAKING HER KEEP THE SECRET TOO!"

Banner was trying, like Steve, to be a voice of reason, "She screwed up, ok? Nobody is perfect!"

"People who forget to use their turn signal say that, NOT PEOPLE WHO PRETEND YOU MURDERED YOUR ONLY FAMILY TO AVOID AN AWKWARD CONVERSATION!" he rounded on Natasha, "Anyone else still floating around I should know about? Are my parents in SHIELD lockup too? Who else isn't dead?!"

"Coulson," Steve looked down and winced- _not the time._

Clint stared at him then shouted wordlessly. At least it got him out of Natasha's face.

The others stared at him, "He's... um... SHIELD's new director..." Steve got quieter and quieter at the silence and open-mouthed gaping. "I found out when they helped us find Bucky... Tony knew."

"Did not!"

"Did too!"

"PERFECT! WELL, APPARENTLY PEOPLE ARE JUST STROLLING OUT OF THE GROUND LEFT AND RIGHT! ISN'T THAT WONDERFUL?!" He turned back to Natasha who remained expressionless, "You were just gonna do what? Let me kill him and hope you got to the body before me? Disguise him somehow? Or were you going to let me find out my LITTLE BROTHER was alive as we were being SLAUGHTERED?! What would you have done if Morris never even recruited him? Let me live my entire life thinking he was DEAD?!"

"Yes," she suddenly snapped back, "Fury locked him in Fenestrelle, Clint. You know what that means! It means he was too dangerous to put in a normal cage. Berny devoted his _life_ to revenge! You aren't the only Barton with powers now, you haven't been for a long time! I took him in so he wouldn't KILL you, and I didn't tell you because I didn't want you to have to deal with that! I'd make that call again!"

"ALIVE AND PISSED OFF IS A FUCKING HELL OF A LOT EASIER TO DEAL WITH THAN DEAD AT MY HANDS!"

The others didn't know how to stop this. He needed to rage- certainly he had a good reason- but a rift in the team with open war looming was disastrous. They had no hope as it was, they needed one another.

Clint vanished abruptly in a burst of shadowy mist. Steve and Natasha both turned to the steps. Inessa put her hands down. The shadows ceased to roll from her, "Nadya will guard him from the other shadows until he's ready to talk," she whispered.

"He has good reason to be upset," Thor put a hand on Natasha's shoulder, "as good a reason as you had to keep the truth from him."

She just nodded. With Clint suddenly gone, the house was too quiet. Natasha retrieved the photographs of Berny from where they landed when Clint erupted. She handed them to Tony who, for once, didn't argue. He simply took them, placed them on the table, and added a label with Clint's name.

"Assuming the plan is to still make you two kill each other, he's got a full complement. My dance partner blew up all over the lobby, so I'll probably live five whole seconds longer than most of you," Sam shrugged.

"Nessie, send me through too. I need to work this out with Clint." Natasha looked tired, but determined.

"No," Steve stopped Inessa before she acted, "let him cool down. You too. Think before you dive back into that fight. An hour, if we have it. Then you go talk to him." Inessa nodded and sat down on the steps. She could see Clint through the shadows, screaming at the void in the sky. Nadya lay a short distance away.

It was the only thing she could do right now for him. When his temper cooled, he might regret anything said in the heat of the moment. He needed time alone to be as angry and scream as many vile things as he needed. She just wished she could do more.

* * *

Once the elevator door opened Berny, John, and Sin were on their feet. A moment later Albatross re-entered with Cul. "Pryor is dead," he snapped.

"I take it by your tone her intended target is not?"

"Not only is the Falcon alive- it turns out Doctor Pryor's abilities had no affect on Nadya Ryker! She played our psychic. The woman was pointless, now the Avengers are joined and we are one short!"

"You anticipated this outcome," Cul reminded the angry little man.

"That doesn't make me any happier about it! WRAITHS!" two shadows appeared before him on the floor immediately, "Start fanning the flames now, I want Rogers and Barton ready to rip each other apart bare handed as soon as possible!"

"This isn't the end of anything," Berny reminded him, "Cul alone could take them. You divided his human batteries across the _world_. They can't stop him. As for Falcon? You need me to kill Clint first, so he can't help the others. I don't like the idea of sitting the rest of the battle out, and no one else will share their kill. I'll kill Clint as the game opener, then move on to Falcon before his body hits the ground. When both are dead, I make my Clint-Eye-Kebab, and everyone's happy on our end of the table." it felt weird, talking down someone Berny had come to think of as the Ice King of the group- or maybe the devil.

"The plan is sound," Sin nodded in agreement with Berny for once, "We are still stronger than them. We will still control the fight."

Morris looked to John Ryker, "You will beat the Hulk before he can aid anyone?

"Of course."

"Fine," Morris took a deep breath and looked at his watch, "It is dawn. We attack as soon as the sun has set. Be ready."

* * *

 


	35. Chapter 33: Final Preparations

**Chapter 33: Morris' Base**

Over 1,000 square acres made up Clint's farm. It's boundaries were very clearly marked by a simple wire fence. The eastern half was devoted to livestock, the western to agriculture. It took dozens of suits to man the perimeter, and two large repulser canons sat evenly spaced in the middle of the farm.

Morris had plenty of devices to broadcast his frequency and seal in Nadya Ryker. He wasn't pleased with it but he had an EM bomb to fry anything and everything turned on within two miles of the detonation point. It would take care of the suits on guard. He still fussed over the map as the final preparations began. Any gap in the signal that allowed the girl to use her powers left him with the potential to lose control of the situation- minus Cul of course. If the wraiths failed to rile the heroes against each other he'd have at least Steve Rogers and Bucky Barnes loose- hopefully the EM would at least disable the metal arm.

"How much time are you budgeting for our spree?" Albatross buckled blades and holsters to his light armor.

"Twenty minutes, less if John Ryker is everything they say he is."

"And the child?"

"My master awaits my signal. Once I have so much as a hand on Nadya he will bring us directly to his throne. He has many children, some as special as she is. It will not be difficult for him to break her, she'll never see this world again."

"You're one of those children, I take it?"

Morris nodded, "I have been _augmented_ for strategic advantage. One of my more pathetic sisters is lost to my father. He is keen to replace her with someone worthy."

"If I chose to go with you, would I become one of his _children_ too?"

Morris only laughed, but the meaning was clear enough. He wasn't worthy of the "honor". Still, Albatross would rule one of the master's territories for him- an entire solar system most likely. It wouldn't be such an awful way to spend his long life. Especially knowing Natasha Romanoff's corpse was feeding the soil back on Earth.

* * *

"How are they?"

"The same," Inessa kept a watchful eye on Clint and Natasha in the Valley, though she refused to listen in as well.

"So, no change from the last time you asked, 60 seconds ago."

"You can criticize when you have a team of your own to lead. This one is mine and I'll check on them as often as I damn well please!" Steve and Bucky had been arguing all afternoon. It was driving the team crazy. Inessa studied them carefully, but she couldn't see the creatures from before, and nothing they tried would stop it... Not that Sam didn't find _some_ satisfaction in punching the two of them 'just to see'.

"Morris plans to make you two fight," Banner reminded them yet again, "so just knock it off until we're all too dead to care."

"Oh, yeah, letting your men sit around and prepare to die instead of at least _pretending_ they have a prayer must be a very subtle technique. I can feel the leadership now. Wait- before we start fighting maybe we should form a suicide pact, or at least decide if we're catching or killing, cause that little disagreement got both our asses handed to us with Dennisson!"

"My leadership was no issue when you actually _followed_ orders instead of flaunting them! At least Inessa's listening to me!" Steve's phone buzzed and he retrieved the text, "Sinthea Schmidt _is_ Red Skull's daughter."

Bucky rolled his eyes, "Oh well that changes everything! Oh wait- NO IT DOESN'T!" he caught sight of Tony putting a hand in his pocket and rounded on him temporarily, "If you hit us with Widow Bites one more time I swear to god you'll die before Morris even gets here." Tony let go of the mini tazer and pulled out a stick of gum instead, "Good choice."

"You don't threaten members of _my team_!"

"I'll threaten whoever I want to! If not for me, you'd be dead in the Potomac!"

"If not for me you'd still be waving the Hydra banner!"

Bucky scoffed, "You're just pissed that when _you_ were the one falling to your death, _I_ actually jumped to save you."

"INTO A RIVER. YOU JUMPED _INTO_ A RIVER! In case you didn't notice when you _splattered_ the first time- land is slightly harder! Survival is a lot more difficult!"

" _I_ survived!"

"Oh, yeah, you did a wonderful job. Bravo. How many murders again? And is Inessa your only torture victim or is there a whole warehouse full of them?!"

Inessa had enough. She got up and, ignoring Steve's demand for her to sit down (which set the argument in a shiny new direction), went upstairs where it was quieter.

She peeked in on Natasha and Clint again. Their gestures were less animated- but that could just be exhaustion. At least they looked like they were talking it out. She curled up on her bed, very much alone. At least, nearly.

"How's it going kiddo?" Sam sat on the edge of the bed and sighed, "Maybe when Clint and Nat are done we should lock one of the guys in there too. At least that would be quieter."

"I can't see the monsters, but it has to be them again. Pain isn't helping stop it this time."

"Bright side? It got you speaking again."

Inessa was quiet, but she could hear Steve and Bucky as loudly as ever. "Bucky is going to leave."

Sam nodded, "Probably. He won't do it until he knows you're safe though. He needs time to figure things out, I don't think he can do that here."

Inessa swallowed and hugged her knees to her chest, still lying on her side, "The Hydra base in Japan finished Project Helius. The devices weren't powerful enough to open a door. I don't think they knew it could do more than make people invisible. I had to blow it up... I had to destroy it."

Sam considered her words, "We'll break that to Steve a while later, OK? Like, months. The man is looking for an excuse to crash and burn, we'll both have to do our parts to keep that from happening. He's been fighting too long. He forgot how to live between the battles."

"You're not mad?"

Sam chuckled, "There's too much of that going around right now. Clint, Nat, Steve, Bucky- they didn't leave any rage for the rest of us. Thank you for telling me the truth."

Inessa rolled over to face him, "I could save you all. You don't have to die."

"Morris wants us dead as much as he wants you. He's not giving up one for the other. Handing yourself over will accomplish nothing."

"No," she hadn't thought of that, "I mean... I could lock us in the Valley- maybe bring the whole farmhouse. We could hide for as long as possible. If Morris couldn't find us-"

"He lets Cul loose and everyone dies- if not at Cul's hands then at those of whoever Asgard sends to pulverize the world. We're heroes. It means we _really_ want to run, we want to go screaming for the hills, but we don't. You know that."

"I do. But you'd all be safe. I could lock it down. Nothing in, nothing out. Nothing making people crazy, no life-sucking gods, no psychics, no-" she froze and sat up suddenly, mouth open. She hardly dared to breathe in case it somehow ruined the thought dancing through her head. Everything she knew supported it, but she kept running through it until she was certain. Could they be that lucky? "Come on!"

"I like that look, it means good things," Sam followed, smiling.

Inessa ran down the stairs. Steve and Bucky were still shouting, naturally. "BE QUIET!" they stopped and turned. Before either could so much as cough and prompt some other verbal assault from the other she opened the door to the Valley and dropped Clint and Natasha in the living room, "Be quiet!" she wouldn't let them speak either.

One last time she ran through the scenario in her head. Again, it came up positive. "I know how to do it. I know how to stop Cul Borson."

* * *

 


	36. Chapter 34: Barton vs Barton

**Chapter 34: Clint's Farmhouse**

"Unless your plan is to destroy this realm, it is already too late," Thor said sadly.

"No!" she stopped Bucky or Steve from speaking and re-igniting their feud, "It isn't too late!"

"He could have an entire army under his control by now." Steve's job was to be the rational one- or the voice of doom.

"Shut up and-"

"YOU SHUT UP!" she cut Bucky off with only a tremor of fear. "Yes, he could have an army. You said he only needs to be cut off from them to become mortal again. You weren't being too simple? That's all it would take?"

Thor nodded, "As best I know, yes."

"Sam doesn't have someone to fight. If you two don't start on one another we have three people free, so far as we know. Morris _will_ block my powers. If you three figure out what he's using and disable enough of it, I can take him and Thor through to the Valley. Then you turn it back on- lock me out of the area, seal it off on your end and I do the same thing on mine. Nothing gets in or out unless _I_ say so. Cul's connection to his victims might be cut off, and we might be able to kill him. If not, we leave him there. Lock him in forever. He can't hurt anyone if there's no one to hurt."

"That- that might actually work, right?" Banner looked to Thor- they all did.

He didn't speak, but he considered her words carefully. Then he crossed the room in two great strides and lifted Inessa into a tight hug.

"I'm taking that as a yes." Clint allowed a small smile of relief.

"Take it as a maybe. We can't count on it until we know for sure if it's working."

"Oh, there it is! I was wondering how long you'd let this happy moment last. Three whole seconds, a Steven Rogers record!" Clint was baffled as Bucky and Steve dissolved into argument once more.

* * *

"Gentlemen, lady, it is time." Morris distributed small portions of champagne to all. "You each agreed to this venture for your own reasons- vengeance, duty, a thirst for power. Whatever that reason, you are all poised to achieve your goals tonight. Divide them. Seek out your targets and deliver their souls to the underworld without delay, and without infringing on your teammates kills. As I've said to each of you already- do not savor it. Savor the sight of the corpse."

"Berny will make our first move, then quickly extinguish the Falcon. Albatross- remember Natasha's betrayal, her failure. Make her pay with her life. John, the Hulk is a beast, not a human. He left you broken and crippled. He deserves to be put down. Give the world that gift and you will be the hero of Hydra. Cul, for all Odin took from you- your throne, your dignity, your freedom- revenge yourself on his whelp. Let him know the pain of a child's death. Sin, last but never least, your mission is to cripple Tony Stark's suit and destroy the man inside. Prove yourself worthy of your father's legacy."

"Our only way across the border to the farm is to release an EM blast, destroy any electronic device active. Iron Man and the Falcon will likely not be stopped by this. Be ready for all hell to break loose the moment they realize they are under attack. While our devices are activating you will have twenty seconds. So will they. Don't let them confuse you, don't let them switch off with one another. They expect us to attack in the daytime- that's why we're going now. Our plan is sound. We have every advantage.

He raised his glass in a toast, "To the last hours of the Avengers."

* * *

Inessa felt something. If she hadn't been looking, mind stretched out in the shadows as far as she could manage she'd never have noticed. Coincidence? Or fate? "It's starting," she broadcast to the entire team and immediately ran to her room to begin changing into her uniform. She wouldn't be much use in an honest fight with the scythes, but maybe her limited training could keep her alive until the boys did their job.

Clint came over the comms from downstairs, "Too late to go to the bathroom?"

* * *

"Ready?" Ryker was jittery, anxious to see his foe at last. Twenty minutes. Maybe less. A quick victory.

"Give me a moment," Berny's hands shook slightly as he uncapped the two syringes.

Albatross smiled, "Excited?"

"How could you tell?" he jammed both into his legs and pressed the plungers. The effects would only last a few hours, but they increased the range of his abilities threefold.

He watched the speck of light that was the distant farmhouse, pushed his sight as far as it would go and followed it with his hearing and sense of touch. He kept a hand to the ground now that the empty syringes were in the dirt. "Hold," the Cabal froze. A moment later he could hear the heartbeats from inside the house, see shadows in the windows, fell the tremors in the earth as they walked. He waited, listened, identified the targets, then smiled and withdrew.

"They are divided throughout the farm. Thor and Stark are with the Winter Soldier in the barn. The rest are in the house, separated. Banner and Clint are near the front door. He looked over to John, "So you stay with me."

"Have fun everyone," Morris activated the pulse. The farm went dark.

Berny ran at the house with his bow and arrow in hand the entire way. He used his enhanced senses to locate the structure in the pitch black- then shut down his enhanced hearing seconds before Morris' frequency was activated.

He cleared the porch in one leap. Small lights were coming on inside- glow sticks hastily cracked and tossed about. Berny held up a hand and John stopped behind him, panting and holding his custom weaponry at the ready. He felt the others stop in place, waiting for the first kill as their cue. Berny smiled cheekily to John, took, a breath, then knocked on the door and quickly raised his bow and arrow to the ready.

* * *

Clint froze when he heard the knock. Banner jumped to his feet, ready to Hulk-out at a moment's notice. Clint held up a hand to stop him. "Fury?" Banner whispered.

"Better not be. We told SHIELD no agents, it'll only feed Cul." he stared at the door a while, "Bad guys usually don't knock though."

"Your lips to Gods ears." Clint wore his bow, but he had a crossbow in hand too. He lifted it and stepped up to the door. There was a lead weight in his chest. Clint never remembered feeling this afraid in his life.

He put a hand on the doorknob, "Everyone ready?"

"As we'll ever be."

"Especially with Steve leading us."

"BUCKY, CRAM IT."

Clint ignored them and turned then handle. He threw the door open and raised the crossbow. It was Berny's face, not the arrow inches from his eye, that made Clint hesitate despite himself.

"Hello brother," Berny spun immediately and released the arrow into the head of John Ryker. He hit the porch, dead, without so much as seeing Bruce Banner's face.

Berny lowered his bow and smiled, "Get my pictures?"

* * *

 


	37. Chapter 35: The Battle of Menno

**Chapter 35: Clint's Farmhouse**

"Don't be stupid, if I was going to kill you I'd have done it already." Clint kept his bow leveled at Berny. "Let me in before you lose the element of surprise. Or shoot me. Again. Your choice." Berny pushed the crossbow aside after a moment and quickly stepped in, closing the door on John Ryker's corpse behind him. Clint was dumbfounded. He'd been prepared to subdue his brother or dry trying, now he was here and all Clint could think to do was grab him and pull him into a tight hug.

Berny shoved him back with a scowl, "Let's get this straight. We aren't friends. Just because I'm not killing you, doesn't mean I don't hate your guts."

"I'm just glad to see you- alive," Clint was unphased by Berny's rejection. His brother, his _dead_ baby brother, and they weren't fighting to the death. Yet.

"Hold on, they're talking about some plan, it could change a few things... Wait for my cue!" he held up a hand to silence Clint and spoke into an earpiece.

"Why are you helping us?" Banner realized something suddenly, "You killed those kids in New York!"

"Damn straight," Berny nodded, "if I didn't, Morris would have found someone else and _they'd_ kill you. As to your first question- I just spent nearly half my life in prison. What you need to know about people like me is that we'll say anything to get out, and _do_ anything to stay out. Morris is a puffed-up ass with that 'Emperor of the Galaxy' bullshit. He can't pull this off, even with his little dream-team. I'd rather not have to look over my shoulder for the surviving Avengers or SHIELD agents the rest of my life. Now, I just killed John Ryker for you. I won't kill Clint because he's my bargaining chip- trust me until this ends, then let me go my own separate way in peace. Take it or leave it." he grabbed Clint's crossbow and once again held it to his forehead.

"He's telling the truth," Inessa's voice came from the landing. Banner turned, Clint didn't. "I'm good at telling when people are lying. He lied when he said he didn't believe Morris could win, but he didn't when he said he'd help and let Clint go."

There were a few tense heartbeats, then Clint nodded. Berny let go of the bow and flashed a grin at Inessa. "You, my dear, look _just_ like your mother- lucky for you. I'm glad Anton got the girl, but he looked like a frog. I'd appreciate it if you consider your grandfather's untimely demise as repaying of a debt I owed her. She saved my life once upon a time."

"She was a monster. You should have killed her."

Berny smiled, "A monster? What does that make you?"

"A better monster."

"Good answer," he nodded appreciatively, then put a hand to his earpiece again, "Give me a second!" he hissed. "What's the plan?" this question was directed at Clint.

Clint was happy to see his brother. He wasn't dumb. Clint activated his own comm unit, "Steve, Berny's on our side for this fight."

"You sure?" he sounded adequately suspicious.

"He killed John Ryker. I think he's sincere, so does Inessa."

"So," Bucky's voice this time, Clint braced for snark and a bit of fighting, "the only person in this fight _less_ mentally stable than myself and the man's big brother who only found out he was alive a few hours ago? That's who we're trusting to decide loyalties?"

"That's right," Steve again, "I'm going to side with _them_ , and you're going to pull your head out of your ass because it doesn't work so well as a _hat_."

Clint turned off his comm while the two continued in their little fight, "Do you know anything about how to break Morris' hold on Steve and Bucky?"

Berny shrugged, "I never even saw the creatures. He brought them with him."

Clint nodded and re-activated the comm. He interrupted the continuing argument, "We'll provide cover fire for anyone fighting around the farmhouse. Tazer arrows only for Berny." his brother grinned and removed his quiver. He exchanged it for half a dozen shock-arrows from Clint's. "Nessie, you're going to stay by us and keep working damn hard on that frequency. The second you feel it even starting to give, make your move," he was vague about the plan, but it was intentional. He loved his brother. He didn't necessarily trust him.

"Tell Stark that Sin knows the weak points on the Suit. Don't let her get within thirty feet of him with those knives. The girl is psychotic." Clint relayed Berny's message while Banner quickly patted him down for hidden weapons. He, for one, would be keeping a close eye on their new 'ally'.

"I'm still not comfortable with this-" Banner glared at Berny, "until I know for sure you're on our side, I'm not letting you fight with us or against us." he was prepared to Hulk-out if need be.

Berny merely smiled and hit his own comm, "Everyone, we have a problem!"

"What is it?" Morris was on edge, this could push him over.

He winked to Banner, "Someone betrayed us- they've got our entire lineup, names, faces, everything!"

"WHAT?!" Morris screamed. Bucky heard the echo from his shout over in the loft- Morris was somewhere in the East field. "WHO?!"

"Me." Berny popped out his earbud and tossed it to Banner to listen to the curses streaming from it before the line was severed. " _Now_ we're on the same side. You all go down, I'm not far behind. We have a reason to fight together."

Banner considered it, then nodded.

Clint took a deep breath, looked to his brother, and gave the signal to the other Avengers, "We all survive this, beer's on me."

"We're going to need something stronger," Tony came up on comms.

"Me too?" Inessa raised an eyebrow.

"Ness gets one glass of our weakest stuff. The rest can have whatever they want," he latched the crossbow back into his ankle holster. He looked to Banner, "Have Hulk help wherever he can, but steer clear of Cul and Thor, got it?"

"I can't promise _he'll_ listen, but I'll try."

"Best we can hope for." Clint nodded to him and Banner began moving to the back door. Natasha would lure Albatross out into the open when she broke out of the study windows and into the back yard. He cracked his neck, "No more hesitating, GO!"

* * *

Tony blasted from the barn in a spray of bullets and small missiles. He hoped to kill Sin with a lucky shot- but at the very least he'd take giving her a splinter. A nasty one. Something slammed into his back and he twisted to dislodge whatever debris caught him. The explosion was the signal for the other Avengers to get into position.

From the roof of the barn Thor released a ring of lightning to fry anything within ten feet- a second diversion after Tony's escape. Bucky dove out of the window as soon as the bolts stopped and booked it for the eastern end of the barn. He wasn't allowed to go after Morris, but based on the echo he had a good idea where he was- and presumably where the transmitter was. The sooner he got to them and deactivated the lot, the sooner he could have a few words (or fists) with Steve about his attitude.

"So, this is Thor, son of Odin," Cul was behind Thor on the roof. He wheeled around to face his uncle, hammer already winding up.

"Cul, son of Bor, you were sentenced to an eternity in the deepest cells of Asgard for your crimes against the Icari'i people and the Valkyrie homeworld. Return willingly or I _will_ kill you."

Cul chuckled, "The Icari'i? I'd almost forgotten them. They were quite delicious. The power they gave me- so far humans aren't nearly as filling, they're too short-lived. Oh, but they breed like Bilgesnipe, so perhaps it will all balance in the end." He nodded to Mjolnir, "It's nice of you to bring me my old weapon," he held out a hand. Thor felt Mjolnir hum, vibrate in his hand, then go still as it rejected the summons. It was obvious who's magic turned the hammer against him. Cul snarled, "Odin!" he dove for Thor.

Sam appeared from the shadows of the farmhouse balcony. While Bucky ran eastward, Sam flew to the west. He glanced across the farm as he took off and saw something peculiar, "Tony? You've got someone on your back!"

"I was wondering where the little scamp was," Tony suddenly began to spin mid-air, trying to throw Sin from his suit, "I've got this! Kill the transmitters or call if you need help!" Sam didn't wait for a second order. The battles with Sin and Albatross were secondary to the war with Cul.

Steve had been waiting in Clint and Natasha's room- the only spot where the roof slope was gentle enough for their plan. The door opened behind him and Inessa ran in with Berny and Clint, "Hurt them, and I will rip you into small pieces _very_ slowly," Steve made sure Berny understood him before he smashed the window with his shield, grabbed the curtain rod, and waved Clint over. He took his friend's arm and swung around- throwing Clint up onto the roof. He did this twice more for the other two before jumping to the ground and running off into the dark, "You're all alone, Nat. Get Albatross into the yard, the Bartons will wipe him out."

"That might be tough," Natasha was facing her old ally in the middle of the downstairs hallway. He'd popped through the window before Clint gave the signal for her to make the same move. So far Albatross wasn't put off in the least by her newer stature- every move she made he matched or countered in complete silence. Natasha raised her batons to block an upper strike and absorbed a second blow to the stomach- barely. It was like when she'd fought Bucky in DC over a year ago- a hit from a super-soldier felt like a blow from a sledgehammer. She was faster- a benefit of her smaller, leaner build, but he was certainly stronger.

Even her thigh-grip (or "Human Stairmaster" as Tony dubbed it) didn't work. Natasha used Albatross' hip and arm as leverage to wind her way onto his shoulders, but before she could pull the garrotte from her wrist-holder or lock legs around his neck he tipped backwards and slammed into the floor, pinned her with his neck and shoulders, then flipped so he was sitting on her chest. Natasha kicked out, hit him in the neck, and she was free- but not without significant pain in her torso and thigh. The unnatural maneuver sprained something at best- tore it at worst.

Thor spun the hammer into Cul's jaw, but his Uncle simply used the strike to launch himself to the ground. As he dove to match Cul's footing, Thor arced as much lightning as Mjolnir could channel. The light washing over the scene was blinding. Clint, Berny, and Inessa ducked down and covered their eyes- they couldn't afford to loose sight in this battle.

A massive roar deafened them next- the Hulk was joining the party, for better or worse they didn't know. Straddling the change as long as he had cost Banner something in the switch- Hulk decided 'Steer clear of Cul and Thor' was a vote of no-confidence in his abilities. He'd set them straight. Before the lightning cleared he was diving into it to pummel Cul into the ground. They couldn't kill him, but Hulk was no puny human- he could smash Cul into the ground like a rock- trap him that way.

"What's happening?" Steve demanded, unsettled by the roar he'd heard.

"Hulk vs god," Tony spared a glance as he slammed back-first into the barn- damn bitch was proving hard to shake and her little knives were severing some big wires in the suit- he'd lost weapons and function in his right leg.

"HULK- NO!" Steve shouted, panicked, "HULK- THROW, NOT SMASH! CUL CAN TAKE YOU!"

"So we give up a damned good advantage? We don't even know _if_ Cul could possess Hulk! HULK- HELP THOR!" Bucky knew Steve was right- but he'd be damned if he was going to admit it.

"NEGATIVE! HULK- STAND DOWN!"

Hulk ignored puny men, bickering as always. Somewhere deep in his mind, Banner wondered if those two were angrier than even _Hulk_.

"I'll help once I've finished up," Sam finally spotted a clod of loose dirt and dove down. He landed hard and scraped at the hard earth desperately. "You better be shallow," his hands began to shiver, then tremble. It wasn't nerves or adrenaline- something was happening. A few more swipes through the dirt confirmed it- the transmitter was _burrowing_. He found a perfectly circular hole in the harder earth, angling slightly back towards the farm. It was too narrow to reach down, and it was filling as the object drilled towards the farmhouse.

"Steve, we've got a problem!"

"I think I know!" Steve was standing over another hole.

Bucky turned immediately and ran back for the farm. "Stark, I'm coming to you! The transmitters are burrowing towards your location. Run a scan for underground structures while I distract Sin!"

"GET THE HELL BACK INTO POSITION!" Steve took off on a perpendicular path to grab the damned idiot. He snagged a small steel bar from the fence and ripped it up and away from the barbed wire. Maybe it was time to beat sense back into him.

"STAY CLEAR!" Thor roared. The lightning had cleared to reveal Cul standing next to a gray, shriveled Hulk. He braced as Hulk roared and dove for him. For every swing that connected with Hulk, he lost precious moments to defend against Cul, who attacked in earnest now. The only thing working for Thor was that Cul wouldn't enslave him just to kill him- it was dishonorable. He had to keep his uncle fighting long enough for the others to stop the transmitters.

Hulk's skin arced with blue lightning as Berny and Clint opened fire with tazer-arrows. Cul released his new pet from the fight and Hulk jumped. From the edge of the sparring ring to the roof he flew, roaring.

"Sorry, lass!" Berny grabbed Inessa and shoved her from the roof just before Hulk landed where she'd been squatting. The roof shattered. Inessa scrambled for something to grab onto, but only managed to slow her descent as the farmhouse buckled and the porch started to give way. She screamed as a splintered board caught her ribs, leaving a long, bloody slash as she fell. She blacked out for a moment and lay stunned on the ground, staring up at a bloody strip of skin hanging above her. Hulk continued forward to the other side of the house and dove into the darkness after the retreating archers- he was much slower with Cul sapping his strength.

"Change of plans!" Sam hovered over the battlefield, "We can't just turn the transmitters off, we don't have time! I'm going to blast them and we'll just hope Inessa can hold him off from the other side!"

Berny ran next to Clint. He glanced behind and swore, "I'd better survive this!" he had an idea as to where the transmitters were going- a massive, central, echo-ie basin. Hulk was too close, it wasn't going to be fun. He stopped running abruptly, Clint never even saw it, and slammed his hand into the ground. Quickly, he reached out with his abilities, felt for the constant _hum_ of the rock over the din of pounding feet ranging from tiny to massive. "THE MAIN SQUARE BEHIND THE HOUSE- THAT'S WHERE THE TRANSMITTERS ARE HEADING! BLAST YOUR WAY IN AND KEEP SHOOTING, THEY'RE ALMOST THERE!" he barely got the sentence out before Hulk grabbed him and threw him as hard as he could back at the farmhouse in the distance- all without breaking stride.

Natasha and Albatross were trapped in the kitchen by the destruction. A heavy-looking beam blocked the porch door, and there was no time to scramble out the smashed windows unless she could stun her enemy somehow. Natasha clicked on the electricity in the baton and swung it at Albatross' head. He hooked her arm, dodged the sparking end, and slammed the handle repeatedly into the side of her head- breaking her jaw and destroying the embedded comm (which was now embedded in bone). Natasha's eyes rolled involuntarily. She managed to tip the other baton back towards him as he geared up for one more slam into the side of her head. The baton connected, electricity coursed through one into the other. Natasha's muscles locked. Neither she nor Albatross could even hear when Berny came flying through the window and slammed into the two of them- knocking both into the wall. The move broke the connection between them and the baton- but it also broke the stove. Unconscious and unaware, the three were slumped around the room as it filled with natural gas.

Outside, Sam took a deep breath and glanced to Thor. His nose was broken and his face was bloody under the relentless assault from Cul. Inessa was lying on her back on the porch, trying to force herself to stand. Tony- who appeared to still be fighting Sin- looked like he only had one arm and leg working. She was diving around him faster than he could manage with his damaged suit. The red girl jumped onto the live side of the suit and began ripping out plates and slicing at wires with superhuman speed and strength. The helmet went dark- dead.

He couldn't see Bucky and Steve in the chaos, but judging by the grunting and shouts over comms they were fighting. It was time for a desperate measure. Sam primed the weapons on the wings. Two weapons control units on his wrists activated and small pads appeared- four keys each- each key controlling a section of the wing weapons. Sam began to spin, mirroring Tony's corkscrew from earlier. As he spun faster and faster, he drummed randomly on the keypad. The faster he spun, the tighter the beams shooting from the wings were grouped. He increased the rate of descent as much as he could- they didn't have time for anything else. He hoped it was enough.

Thor looked over just before Sam hit and slammed his Hammer into the ground as hard as he could, allowing Cul another shot to his head. The shockwave coupled with the deepening crater to crack the Earth. It started as a tremble in the ground, then a shake. Cul backed up to brace himself as Thor did the same. With a colossal wrench, the ground began to drop away into the ancient tunnels deep beneath the farm.

Dust and dirt exploded from the holes as twenty foot thick sections of earth crumbled into the ancient reservoir. Sam couldn't hear after the first couple seconds, but he kept spinning and shooting as the rock fell and he descended into the chaos. He slowed his rate, allowed the beams to shoot out in wider waves as he descended. Tony's suit tumbled in on top of a large slab, but it was limp- lifeless. Sin had run clear of the destruction, but now she followed her pray down dangerously shifting and tumbling rocks to make the killing blow.

In the chaos, Sam didn't know if the transmitters were destroyed, or simply even more impossible to find. He stopped the assault, too dizzy to notice or help Tony, and looked up. Through the dust and debris he couldn't see much. He'd been deafened by the quake. Sam closed his eyes against the warping and spinning vision and did the only thing he _could_ for the moment- he said a quick prayer for luck. It was only quick because he'd gotten so far as "Dear God, please-" before Steve struck Bucky across the head with his bit of steel fence, knocked him into the pit, and the Winter Soldier in turn knocked Sam out of the air.

* * *

"THOR!" Inessa ignored the cold pain in her ribs as the ground gave way and Sam vanished. She covered her ears, not that it helped against the massive roar. By some miracle the farmhouse wasn't included in the new crater. She felt the walls of the Valley stronger now, but she couldn't open a door- just barely. A little more and she could open the door wide, "WE NEED TO FLY!"

Cul tackled Thor before he could recover and grabbed him by the throat. The time for honor was over. Thor swung Mjolnir into Cul's pelvis, immensely grateful the Warriors Three were not there to witness it. Cul dropped his nephew and stumbled, surprised. Inessa held the wound on her side closed and ran for Thor. She jumped onto his back as Cul recovered, hooked a thin arm around his throat, and latched onto his mid-section with her legs. Thor wound up the hammer, grabbed Cul by the forearm, and shot into the sky like a bullet.

When the air grew too cold, the oxygen started thinning, and the farm was a pinprick beneath them, the doors to the Valley snapped open and the three were swallowed by shadow. At the same time Sam said his quick prayer (or at least tried to), Inessa said one too for them, then slammed the doors behind them.

* * *

 


	38. Chapter 36: The Valley (The Battle of Menno, Part 2)

**Chapter 36: The Valley**

Originally, Inessa planned to leave her body as soon as the doors closed behind them. Nadya was never far from the center of the Valley, and every single door opened there, but she realized very quickly that wasn't an option. Thor continued to shoot up into the sky and hit the lower edges of the vortex. Closing the Valley off calmed the surface winds, but not those higher up. If Inessa left her body, it would drop, and she wouldn't survive. She had no choice but to cling to Thor as they were tossed wildly, buffeted in several different directions, until he finally lowered Mjolnir and attempted a landing. They three crashed to the ground at such a sharp angle that they ended up somewhere Inessa had never been- the lower edge of the Valley's ever-distant rim.

Thor held her when they crashed, kept the worst of the shock and stones away. Inessa felt a scythe blade twist sideways and bite into her reinforced top. Mercifully (and unlike the wooden spike), it just barely connected with one of the reinforced plates and didn't pierce her skin. She needed to add more protection on the sides, like JARVIS' design.

As soon as Inessa knew her body was safe, she reached out to find Nadya's- but something was wrong. They were much too far away. Her friend was a long way off- a couple hours at her fastest run. The Valley was too large and their trajectory too strange. Inessa was going to have to help Thor as a human- she couldn't risk opening a small window to tunnel Nadya through. The other wolves were running to join their leader, but none were close to her position.

Inessa rolled away from Thor, gasping at a flair of pain in her side. Cul was slowly rising to his feet. While he did, she poked at her injured side, tested it. It hurt like hell, but not like it should. Inessa had been skinned before a time or ten, she knew what it should feel like. Damaged nerves or shock- whatever it was holding back the pain, she was grateful, and a bit woozy.

"The doors are closed. If he dies, it's now," she panted as Thor righted himself and summoned Mjolnir from a few feet away. Inessa left the scythes hooked through her belt and let shadows roll down her hands to form long, black talons. She only wished she had Nadya's poison.

Cul was looking around, wondrous. He laughed, but it wasn't a scornful one, it sounded suspiciously like amazement, "Is this your doing, little thing?"

"Yes," she glared, "no more slaves for you to drain. No one to keep you alive."

"Other than you two," he nodded to Thor, "but- _how_ did you find this place?"

Inessa walked around him, away from Thor. She was forcing him to focus on only one target- not that Cul cared. She wasn't anything resembling a threat.

"The Valley is mine to come and go from as I please," Thor couldn't summon lightning here, but he could beat Cul to death- she hoped.

"The Valley?" Cul's wonder grew, "You don't know what this is? Do you?" he shook his head, "That treacherous Barton believed you might have come from this land- a shade infecting the corpse of an infant. Now I wonder too," a lance of mist rolled from him suddenly, headed straight for Inessa. She didn't dodge the mist- instinct told her not to. She simply let it wash over her.

Thor shouted when he saw Cul's power hit Inessa. If she was taken- if he had to kill her to stop his uncle- but he couldn't kill her! The mist turned black as it touched Inessa. The darkness spread outwards, back to Cul. He shouted in pain and released the power before the black smoke consumed him. Inessa was entirely unharmed.

"I don't believe it," his wonder turned to shock, "that imbecile was right..."

"You know this place?" Inessa couldn't hear his words. She was focused on Thor- silently communicating that she was alright, he didn't need to shit himself (if he hadn't done so already).

Cul looked up at the twisting nether in the sky. He stared at it a long time- long enough for Inessa to grow impatient and Thor to ready his swing, "That is all that remains of the bifrost in this realm," Thor froze again. Cul bent down and scooped up a handful of stones. He let them tumble between his fingers as he stood, "These? The pieces left of the Icari'i capitol. The last time I was here, child, the world burned. It looks as if the Jotuns left a ghost or two," he stared pointedly at Inessa.

Her mouth opened slightly. She didn't believe it, but if it was true- Inessa reached to the mind of Nadya, the sentient shadow with a mind unlike any beast, and shared an image of Cul in front of her. The wolf roared- rage and vitriol filled Inessa's mind, and as a group the pack's speed increased exponentially. They moved faster than even they knew was possible. Inessa drew back and stared at him- their reaction was personal. Even the feral wolves raced to save Inessa, to protect her from the false god. She stared at Cul, stunned, as Thor attacked.

Cul was caught of guard and shouted in pain as the hammer connected with his back shoulder. Inessa was jarred from her stupor as he spun and knocked Thor's legs from under him, then struck the prince mid-chest as he fell. The motions made his head snap back and winded the hero. Inessa dove for Cul- riding the fury she'd felt radiate from Nadya. She lashed at him with the shadowy talons and Cul blindly swatted her away. He looked down at the wounds as they healed, angry. Inessa landed several feet away and smiled- a streak of his hair was turning white. The plan worked. The Valley- whatever it was- cut him off from his slaves on Earth.

Thor didn't take time to make the same observation, he just swung his hammer into Cul's head once again. The two began battling in earnest, but this time Cul was keeping an eye open for Inessa. She couldn't take another hit from him- pure adrenaline and shock kept her on her feet after the strike, but she dove in when she could, slashed and irritated- forcing his body to burn through the reserves of healing energy until- there!

A streak of black shot past her, then more and more. Thor was forced away as Cul screamed in fear and pain. Nadya's pack swarmed him, slashing and ripping at every inch of his flesh. Inessa considered leaving her body to escape the pain and weariness settling in, but she resisted. She couldn't guide the pack in their task, and if Cul was right- if they were somehow the spirits of the world the Jotuns destroyed to stop him before- maybe they deserved to revel in their frenzy undisturbed.

Thor watched until he saw long strands of white hair and Cul's voice had grown feeble and weak. He dropped his hammer and walked over to check on Inessa. She was watching the wolves, pale and weary. Thor lifted her and carried the teen away from the feasting pack.

He was curious, and they couldn't leave until the wolves backed off and they could verify his death. Until the beasts grew bored, there was time to explore. Thor carried Inessa up the slope of the Valley. Like her, he'd believed the far-off rim to be towering cliffs, but standing halfway up one such feature he realized it was only a slope. It was steep in places, but not terribly so. The Valley, impossible as it seemed, was merely a crater in a much larger landscape.

After several minutes he crested the rim at last and set Inessa down to face what lay beyond. In the distance a few crumbling foundations stood, but otherwise it was as desolate as Svartalfheim. Destruction showed clearly- scars on the land from the Jotun's war, things that looked like broken spears or bits of skeleton, the ground was black, but in places angry red rivers of lava flowed, and only darkness in the sky. The reason the light over the Valley was so flat, so dead, was precisely what Cul claimed it to be- the shining, shattered Bifrost. A sun must have shone once, but no longer. Yet the world lived.

Thor attempted to hail Heimdall, but no reply came. It could simply be the stubborn obedience that marked the bridge-keeper, but something else crept into Thor's mind. The destruction of the bridge likely cut the realm off more than anyone could fathom. The Avengers weren't wrong in their earlier guesses about the Valley- it _was_ in another plane. Blasting through the Bifrost, breaking a connection so elemental- it had pulled the entire realm with it to this in-between place. One an erupting experiment into warped particles of light somehow formed an unusual connection to through an unusual source- Inessa.

They waited for twenty minutes while the pack fed. Once it was over, only a few pieces were left of Cul. Still, they collected them in silence and, too weary for words, Inessa grabbed Thor's neck, opened the doorway beneath them, and the pair fell back into the night over the farm.

* * *

Bucky slammed into Sam and both careened into the rubble. He cursed as he untangled himself from the dazed Falcon. Bucky looked for a way back up to that punk- he was going to kill Steve.

Sam, dazed, rolled onto a fractured wing and winced. Flight was going to be a no-go. Hopefully Natasha had everything covered, because he wasn't making it out of the hole any time soon. He couldn't even see the farmhouse from so far down. Sam tried to focus, he'd seen something important before- "TONY!"

Sam's shout made Bucky turn. He saw Sin making her way to the dead suit and ran for her. She saw him coming and braced for a real fight- maybe this one would be more of a challenge. Bucky caught two throwing knives with his metal hand and launched them back at her.

A blast blocked her from his sight as she dodged the blades. Something exploded and Sin went flying across the crater. Two Iron Man suits hovered nearby. They opened fire and within moments Sin was splattered across the far side of the crater.

"Reboot complete," JARVIS' cheery voice emitted from the suits- as if their appearance didn't make it clear enough. "Mister Barnes, please assist Master Stark, his oxygen filtration system has been deactivated and the Suit _is_ airtight. I must assist Miss Romanoff and the others." the suits flew off. Bucky scrambled for Tony. His rage abruptly melted away and, more than anything, he felt ashamed.

Sam clicked on his comms, "JARVIS, if you see Clint- the guy with him is his brother. Last I heard we were friends with him."

There was a momentary pause, then JARVIS came back on, "His body was recovered with Miss Romanoff's. Both are significantly injured but in stable condition. Is the third party an ally as well?"

"Negative," Sam was emphatic, "terminate with _extreme_ prejudice." There was a loud booming and the farmhouse exploded above them, "Too much prejudice."

"There was a gas leak in the house, that was not my doing." JARVIS sounded defensive.

" _Sure_ there was. Good cover."

Bucky got a grip on the face plate and ripped it away. Tony gasped in the fresh air like a man drowning. He looked up at Bucky, then around as best he could at the crater, "The hell happened here?! Don't answer that- get me out of this damned thing first!" He noticed the red splatter on the still-smoking crater wall, "Please tell me that's who I think it is."

* * *

"Where do you think you're gong?" Steve saw Morris between the farmhouse and the barn, retreating hastily at the sight of Cul, Thor, and Inessa vanishing into the sky. He followed, abruptly unconcerned with that bastard Bucky.

Steve kicked Morris in the back and he fell with a hiss, "What, are you going to kill me? Mister Perfect? Don't make me laugh." the wraiths, sensing defeat, fled- useless cowards.

Steve's rage didn't vanish with them, he was fueling his own temper now, "I went to war because I thought if my presence could end it a fraction of a _millisecond_ sooner, I had an obligation to fight," his voice was low and slow, "I gave up my body, my identity, my best friend, the woman I loved, even my damned _life_ to help people," he slammed a foot into Morris' hand as the man tried to stand, breaking most of the bones. "But then I was dragged out of the grave, thrown into a hell of alien armies, gods, and metal men," he slid his foot up to Morris' wrist and slammed the steel fence piece through his hand, pinning it to the earth. Morris screamed with pain- his enhancements did nothing to help.

"I fought, like always, so others wouldn't have to," Steve lifted his foot and slammed it down again, this time onto Morris' knee, shattering it, "I fought the friend I lost. I thought I could save him, bring myself back from the dead too," he crouched down and slowly applied pressure until Morris' shin snapped. "But first Dennisson. Then you. You won't let me stop. You never will, will you? You, Loki, Hydra, everyone like you. Fight. Eat. Fight. Sleep. Fight. Repeating over and over again until I finally die. Then you'll find a way to drag me back again. Well, maybe not you specifically." He didn't care that his prey was screaming too much to hear him. He didn't care that the farmhouse behind him exploded.

Steve stepped aside and put his foot on Morris' throat next. The man grew abruptly still, "Do it," he said simply, "my master will only do it slower if you don't. Do it."

"Master?" Steve shook his head in wonder, "See? Another one in line already." he stomped down on Morris' neck. His foot went clear through to the other side. For good measure, Steve leaned down and pushed his shield through Morris' face- cutting it in half vertically. He pulled a small grenade from his pocket and tore out the pin, then quickly nestled it in the neck cavity and jogged a safe distance away.

Morris was the one who wanted overkill. Steve was happy to give it to him.

* * *

 


	39. Chapter 37: Defeating the Winter Soldier

**Chapter 37: Clint's Farmhouse- or rather, the ruins of**

With the farmhouse and barn smouldering (not to mention the expanding crater), the Avengers fell one by one into Tony's remote suits (once the power supplies were cycled) and left the farm. Clint and Banner, who'd turned green again just as he caught up with Clint, were found two miles away. They were tired, but unharmed, and were taken back in the second wave to leave. Thor, Inessa, and Sam were the last ones left. They surveyed the damage- glad that Coulson had sent a SHIELD team to oversee the site and wipe all traces of Morris and his cabal off the face of the earth (John Ryker, cut in two when the roof collapsed, was the most whole of the team).

"I'm going to sleep for a fortnight," Thor swore. Three more suits were being repaired by a fourth, and they watched it absently, all of them more asleep than awake.

"How long is that?"

Thor smiled at Inessa, "Two weeks."

"I'll spend that long showering," Sam couldn't even see his skin for all the debris and dust. The more he wiped at it, the more it smeared.

"You should have returned with the others, you are too weary," Thor put a hand on Inessa's shoulder, partly to comfort, partly to steady the swaying teen.

Inessa shook her head as she watched the tiny speck that was Steve's suit fading in the distance, "I had to wait until he was gone. He can't see."

"See what?"

Inessa took a deep breath and stood up. The other two followed her to the chasm's edge. She slowly raised her hands in the shadowy dawn. There was a crack of thunder, a flash of shadow, and suddenly the crater was filled with half-rotted, half-smashed, stinking corpses. More than 100 of them. "Hydra," she explained.

Thor just nodded, "It was a good decision to keep this from him."

"Let's not tell him for a month or two," Sam put a hand on Inessa's shoulder.

"A year or two," Thor suggested after a moment. They'd all seen Morris' body.

Inessa just nodded, "It's from _before_. Mostly. I promise."

"We believe you, Nessie," Sam squeezed her hand, "it's alright."

* * *

**Avenger's Tower - One Week Later  
**

"Do I need to watch my back from now on?" Clint was only half-joking as he talked with his brother in the recovery room. It still didn't feel real.

Berny shook his head, "I'm not planning on being an upstanding citizen, but I've got no taste for blood. Not anymore." He smiled at a thought, "Hey, we can have horrible family meals again," he didn't look at Clint much, it made his temper flair, but he was willing to give civility a try. He'd actually found himself missing his brother, once in a blue moon, when he was locked up.

"I'll look forward to that. I missed having a little brother, you know, and I hated the guy who killed him as much as he does."

"Did." it was the only concession he'd allow Clint, but it spoke volumes.

"What about me?" Natasha managed to sound intelligible through her wired jaw. The healing stone was working, but she was impatient to get the thing off.

"You I got revenge on already," Berny flashed her a smile, emphasizing how he could move his mouth open and closed. She flipped him off.

"Stick around for another week, please?" Clint asked abruptly.

Berny glanced at him, then at Natasha and grimaced, "If I _have_ to."

Natasha suppressed a smile. When she brought Berny in she had a feeling he'd been exaggerating his hatred for his brother. Nothing could have made her feel better than to have that theory validated- even if it was several years (or decades) in the making. Clint glanced over at her and winked. They weren't fighting anymore. Inessa, galvanized by her fight with Cul, was throwing herself into her training and actually obeyed their request to cease her actions against Hydra (with the occasional scan for Helius devices).

No more secrets, no more lies. For once, Avengers Tower was at peace.

For the most part.

* * *

Bucky joined Steve on the balcony of Avengers Tower in time to see the scarlet sun dip behind the distant apartment buildings. Steve was watching it, looking more relaxed than he had in a long time, "I didn't think any of us would live to see one of these again. We were lucky." he took a swig from a bottle of beer. When combined with Thor's Super-Asgardian-Booze he'd discovered it _was_ possible to get buzzed, if not drunk.

"I'm leaving," Bucky didn't know how to preface it, so he just blurted it out.

"I figured."

"I killed Inessa's uncle," he looked down at his shoes, "I used my Hydra contacts to flush him out. Grabbed him off the street when he went to restock on liquor. I tied him down and broke his bones, one at a time. Described what happened to Inessa." he wasn't proud of it, not anymore.

"I know that too."

"When Inessa jumped off the balcony, we went to a Hydra base. For her part, I think it was Pryor influencing things. For mine- as much as I'd like to blame her, it was me. She just helped bypass the conscience faster. Later on I grabbed Inessa and had her take me to another one. I let Dennisson wake up the Winter Soldier, and I used Inessa to make him stronger..."

Steve could guess it all for the most part- the second raid was something he hadn't even dreamed of, but as Bucky confessed he realized he'd lost the capacity for surprise. He just felt empty. They were silent for a long time, until shadows filled the city streets, "Where are you headed?"

Bucky shrugged, "I haven't decided. I guess I'll just see where I end up."

"How long?"

"As long as it takes to get my head on straight and flush out the Winter Soldier once and for all. Maybe for good... I'm tainted, I infect everyone I'm around, but I won't put you or Inessa through that. Not again."

Steve nodded, then faced him finally, "Take care of yourself, Bucky. Find a quiet little corner of the world- somewhere saner than all of this- and be _happy_."

"I will," Bucky promised.

"You're always welcome back here, if you decide to return."

"Honestly? I don't think I will."

Steve knew exactly how he was feeling. He was happy to see Bucky go before that wanderlust turned into a bitter, dark ache, like it had with him. But he still had work to do, people to take care of, a team to lead. All Steve could think to say was, "I'll keep the others from looking for you."

"Can I ask one more favor?"

Steve nodded, "Of course."

Bucky smiled to himself, "I've got this friend- runty little snot, always getting himself into fights- even ones he knows he'll lose. Keep an eye on him for me? He's been fighting so long, I think he forgot that every war ends and eventually you've got to put it down and go home. Remind him for me, when things get rough."

"I will," he shook Bucky's hand, then hugged his friend one last time. "Hey," he stopped Bucky as he turned to leave. He wanted him to be alright. To be happy. For Bucky, that meant getting away. Even from _her_. Steve pulled a syringe from his pocket and tossed it to Bucky, "Simmons finished her cure a bit before things got bad. It'll break Inessa's connection once and for all. She won't be able to find you by that," he gestured to the silver scar hidden under the sleeve of Bucky's shirt.

"Thanks."

"You gonna say goodbye to her?" he was stalling. They both knew it.

"No. I fell into her life. I'm dropping out the same way. Make sure she grows up to be something great. She deserves it."

He nodded once more to Steve, then turned and went back into the lobby. He cast one last look around. So many memories- playing cards with Tony, movies with Thor and Steve, games, pranks at the farmhouse, dinners that felt just like being home again, and fights... Too many fights... Bucky removed his metal arm and set it on the table, lost in memories both sweet and sour. He popped the cap off the syringe and injected the serum into his leg, then pulled on a one-armed jacket and grabbed his duffel bag by the front door. Laughter, lies, friendship, murder, salvation, damnation.

Bucky left the Tower silently. No one would notice for a couple hours still. He walked down the steps, surprised how unwilling he was to even talk to JARVIS. Tony knew he was going, Tony removed the comm for him. He hoped Stark was good on his word to keep it a secret. It would be too easy for someone to talk him out of leaving, and if he stayed there was no doubt Bucky Barnes would fall to the Winter Soldier.

He hesitated across the street and turned back to see the Tower's silhouette. He could barely make out someone far above, looking out from one of the windows in the penthouse. There was no question in his mind. Inessa. The figure waved to him. He made a small half-wave, then turned and walked out of sight.

It was time for Bucky Barnes to disappear again.

* * *

 


	40. Epilogue: Five Years Later

**Epilogue: Five Years Later**

Nine weeks after the battle with the Cabal, in the crater at the farm, the first Avengers Satellite Facility was built. The farmhouse was rebuilt on top of it, but now with hundreds of security features hidden in the walls. For the most part though it looked exactly as it had, Clint wanted the place to still feel like his home.

Not long after Bucky's departure, Tony's scans finally rooted out Loki's scepter from his invasion of New York. Recovering the staff (and the subsequent battle with Tony's new _friend_ Ultron) brought in two new Avengers- the android Vision and an enhanced psychic, Wanda. It also pushed Steve over the edge. Years of fighting, losing people he cared about, feeling trapped- when Peggy Carter died one summer night of old age he broke. He began taking dangerous risks, fought recklessly with both enemies and friends- Tony stepped up to challenge him and a full on war erupted between the two. It ended with Steve dead on the steps of the supreme court, gunned down by the villain Crossbones- Bucky's old Hydra taskmaster.

Steve's death was mourned around the globe. Half the Avengers vanished in its wake. For a time, his shield was carried by the Falcon- Sam Wilson. When Steve reappeared to battle the titan Thanos after the obliteration of Avengers Tower in the Infinity War, rumors swirled that an unknown Avenger- the mysterious Shadow- was responsible for his survival- and that Tony Stark himself orchestrated the memorials to further spread the belief in the Captain's demise. A conspiracy to give the hero the break he so desperately needed.

The Steve Rogers who returned with seven new Avengers in tow was a changed man. He smiled, joked, teased, enjoyed life and never again lived battle to battle.

As more superheroes, enhanced or otherwise, came out of the woodwork the Avengers divided into five units: Technology, Disaster Relief, Espionage, Apprehension, and Warfare.

The Technology Unit faced any foe human or android who used exceptional technological advancements to harm others. Tony Stark led one team, Bruce Banner the other. Scarlet Witch and Vision shared leadership of their team and were responsible for Disaster Relief- getting people out of war zones before the fighting began or after a natural disaster occurred. This task they shared with Sam Wilson and his team of Avengers. Espionage, naturally, was the realm of Natasha and Clint- Black Widow and Hawkeye. The Apprehension Unit- the police wing of the Avengers- was led by Steve and Thor's teams.

The purpose of the Units was to give the Avengers a break- Tony Stark's condition in the treaty ending the civil war. Only one team worked at a time- passing the baton with each new threat. The Warfare Unit, however, never rotated. Steve, Tony, Wanda, Vision, Banner, Thor, Clint, Natasha, Sam and the Shadow- the leaders of the Avengers Army- were the only members. The greatest threats alone were handled by this central counsel.

Whenever Avengers presence was ill advised, or for delicate missions, a special Unit was sent, comprised of only one team: Avengers Black Ops. The Unit was a myth, a rumor for years- until the Infinity War. Like all Avengers teams this one was small- only three new Avengers led by the creature known only as "The Shadow". No one knew if it was human, who it was or where it even came from. Some believed it was responsible for ending the Second Battle of New York, some conspiracy theorists claimed it was created from the souls of the two million killed in Thanos' attack- a beast of vengeance tamed by the heroes. Whatever it was, the popular nickname for the mysterious Unit was forever after 'Avengers Shadow Ops'.

Avengers Tower was rebuilt in record time. Memorial statues to the nine Avengers who died in the Infinity War acted as pillars on the street level. Three more satellite facilities appeared around North America, bases for the other Units. Among all the changes, the upheaval and the resettlement of the original team, Steve kept his promise. There was one rule in Avengers Tower everyone obeyed- no one looked for Bucky Barnes. His existence as an Avenger faded into rumor, then urban legend. No one hunted what they thought was long dead.

Six years after the Second Battle of New York, people could rest assured that whatever rose to challenge the human race, the Avengers would match it in kind.

That confidence ended the night the Avengers only rule was broken.

The night the leaders died.

The night Avengers Tower exploded.

* * *

Thank you all for reading!

 

**Oh, and if anyone was thinking the wording at the beginning of chapters was a wee bit funky, here's why-**

Take the first letter of each chapter from the Prologue through this Epilogue and what do you get?

_Never gonna give you up Never gonna let you down_

Only the Americans may get that joke, I'm not sure how big Rick-rolling is in other countries ;-)

**Author's Note:**

> For further information or explanation of sciency/setting elements from the chapters, visit ProjectEchoFanfic.tumblr.com


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